Feeding the debate
My wife and I have pieces of our kitchen spread all over kingdom come from cooking for crowds. I just got back from a lunch-hour excursion to collect a crock-pot left behind at a church college supper, in order to make it available for this week's Reachout training dinner. Having the usual web geek's social graces and leadership qualities, feeding folks is my way of contributing to the general welfare. People will pretty much ignore you while you flip things on the grill or load the dishwasher, and you rarely have that nagging worry afterward about whether you have done the right thing. After all, everybody's gotta eat, and most people are glad to do so.
Having witnessed the meltdown of basic civility at this summer's healthcare town hall meetings, I have a modest proposal for political circuit riders--town hall potlucks. Of course the town hall meeting attendees were grumpy--they'd been standing in line, there weren't enough chairs inside for everyone. Their feet were sore, and they were hungry. Besides, you can carry a hot crock-pot, or you can carry a sign with a swastika and a hammer & sickle, but you can't carry both. Inside the hall, instead of presiding from behind a lectern, the speaker should preside over the serving line, perhaps behind a mound of fried chicken. People are unlikely to scream abuse in your face if they think you might use your tongs to snag that chicken breast back off their plate, and the pressure from hungry folks waiting to fill their plates will keep conversation brief and to the point.
After everyone has had a plate or two, and a chance to rest their feet, then you can make your remarks and take questions. Full-bellied folks are more agreeable and less excitable. They may be inclined to nap over their dessert plates. And yelling just upsets the digestion.
posted by Dale Hobson @ 9/17/2009
3 comments
3 Comments:
Loved your post. I work at the University of Vermont's Office of Student and Community Relations and our motto is "feed people and you get a better meeting." A study was done and I have saved it somewhere not at my finger tips (don't you just hate that!) that showed that people feel more favorable to you if you provide them with a beverage than if you don't. Makes sense. Showing you care about someone's comfort changes the "stranger" dynamic and helps knit community into your interactions. Candy is great too! We give students a Lake Champlain chocolate and a message that when they are out and about in the neighborhoods, please remember that there are neighbors among us. The students smile, read the message and even remember it. It helps that we have local school children do the drawings! Ah, the way to build empathy - through chocolate and seeing through the eyes of the little ones!
Thanks for your great posts.
A happy NCPR listner.
Thank you for stating an idea that SHOULD be obvious. I have known about the phenomenon for over half a century. Maybe it is just too simple for people to take seriously. My suspicion is that the ones who make trouble for trouble's sake DON'T WANT to feel better; their disruption is disingenuous. But hey, would it hurt to try? It's a great idea!
Naomi
That was a great post. I laughed out loud, while at the same time recognizing it's essential truth. On the topic of the debate, I've often thought that the key to medical malpractice reform is getting doctors to run their practices on time, and to call back later to see how their patients are doing. Sounds overly simple, but I really believe it. Little things really do make a difference, and who isn't cranky after sitting in a crowded waiting room full of sick people for an hour or more past the scheduled appointment time, especially when it happens repeatedly. Add in a treatment that isn't going as well as originally expected, and a doctor who doesn't follow up, and the doctor has a very unhappy patient who may well be friends with an opportunistic lawyer. I think a few simple steps by the medical profession to keep patients happier would likely be at least as effective in reducing malpractice costs as legislation limiting a disgruntled patient's ability to make a claim. Thanks again for a great post.
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