How to foster productive and responsible debate | Ishan Bhabha

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The clash of ideas is fundamental to creativity and progress, but it can also be deeply destructive and create divisions within companies, communities and families. How do you foster productive debate while protecting against harmful speech and misinformation? Constitutional lawyer Ishan Bhabha lays out structures that organizations can use to navigate ideological disagreement and responsibly bring facts and context to a larger dialogue.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. Today's talk starts with a thoughtful
0:09.0	hypothetical from constitutional lawyer Ishaan Baba that I don't want to spoil. By the time you get to the end,
0:15.2	the talk from TED at BCG in 2020 will make you smarter about balancing disagreement and discord in your own life.
0:23.3	Because hearing out opposing views can be quite productive.
0:26.5	We just have to figure out the best ways to do so.
0:31.9	What if you own a hotel?
0:33.9	And one of the key principles in your mission statement is a commitment to treat all employees and customers equally, including on the basis of gender and religion.
0:43.7	And then a large group books an event at your space.
0:46.8	And when you look at the booking, you realize it's a religious group.
0:50.0	And one of their key principles is that women should never leave the home and should have no
0:54.5	opportunities for professional development outside of it. What do you do? Do you host the event and get
1:00.3	criticized by some or refuse and get criticized by others? In my work, I counsel organizations on how to
1:07.1	create rules to navigate ideological disagreement and controversial speech.
1:12.4	And I defend my clients, whether in court
1:14.7	or from the government, when their actions are challenged.
1:17.3	The structures I recommend recognize the real harms
1:20.8	that can come from certain types of speech,
1:23.1	but at the same time seek to promote dialogue
1:26.3	rather than shut it down. The reason is that we need
1:29.5	disagreement. Creativity and human progress depend on it. While it may be often easier to speak
1:35.4	with someone who agrees with everything you say, it's more enlightening and oftentimes more
1:39.8	satisfying to speak with someone who doesn't. But disagreement and discord can have real and meaningful
	...

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