What Would Happen If We All Hit Pause?

Fostering community and connection in Washington during upending times

The aftershocks just keep coming. With so many tectonic shifts happening at the same time — Brexit, our new president and cabinet, the travel ban — it’s not hard to understand why people feel shaken up. With this level of instability, people are turning to their organizations to help them with sensemaking. The institutional pressure to make statements, sign petitions, and take positions has been weighing on many. We at IDEO are no exception. But instead of jumping into the fray, we chose to hit pause and take a moment to listen.

What we heard from our clients and collaborators in the U.S. was a deep yearning for ways to connect through dialogue. This is something we’ve been seeking for years, so we created a design tool to address it. Creative Tensions, a partnership between IDEO and the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, are group dialogues where participants are asked a this-or-that question and reveal where they stand on the issue by where they stand in the room.

It’s not unlike the Danish video that recently went viral in which a room full of people who appear to have little in common, are asked questions like “who is a stepparent?” and “who is lonely?” One by one, participants, young and old, of all…