Enriching Mutual Understanding with Rich Data

Mutual understanding is a powerful force for constructive social change. At the same time, it takes effort to get there, especially among people from diverse social backgrounds who have experienced life differently. Mutual understanding is built through unfettered dialogue, so facilitating mutual understanding from a research standpoint involves cultivating the right atmosphere, an active listening posture, and intense amount of re-listening to the dialogue to properly capture the meaning and implications of what was shared. Technology is cool, but there are no shortcuts here if the goal is gaining rich insights on the dialogical elements that can build mutual understanding and eventually translate it into constructive action.

Mutual understanding is also multifaceted. Mutual understanding can mean two groups in opposition reaching a new understanding through dialogue that opens a new path for greater cooperation, and it can also simply mean a group of people agreeing on the same things. Both forms of mutual understanding are of keen interest to qualitative researchers, and tracing their interconnections can also be a storehouse of insights. For example, if there are gender-based tensions in the workplace, we can gain much in constructive knowledge from the differences in how women and men view workplace bonding activities as well as the similarities in sentiments among women and men when it comes how they experience these activities and what they envision for the future of such activities.

The process of combing through dialogues where respondents share their thoughts, experiences, and feelings with open generosity is sacred and time-consuming. The ethical researcher honors these respondents by listening intently to what they share and implementing democratic processes when it comes to what gets emphasized and reported. Of course, all of this is done with strict adherence to confidentiality standards. Ultimately, the process of making sense of so many statements and sentiments pays off in the form of rich insights that can be used to innovate social spaces for the better of individuals, their productivity and engagement, and the effectiveness of the organization.