A long time ago I used to be in the Young Farmers. I’m not sure if they exsit anymore, but they were a movement mainly for rural children, a bit like a youth club but involving sheep and tractors sometimes. I was in a Young Farmers Club, but I never did sheep or tractors - just wasn’t my calling, but I did used to get nominated to go to Debating nights.
These would be in cold drafty village halls, with a small audience who felt obliged to be there to watch the youngsters debate topics.
Topics would be given out on the night, and one side could be For and the other Against. (I think this exists in other circles, Universities etc - I’m just sharing my limited cold village hall experience).
One night we had a Debating Coach (very ahead of it’s time for the 80s). She advised us to start in a neutral position, to have no view of the topic until we’ve explored it. And then whether we were allocated For or Against you had to work up both in your prep work. We had to understand the other argument to be in with a chance of winning.
This came back to me when I watched a meeting unfold into everyone talking at each other, and no one listening. It turned into who could talk over, louder, longer. They all thought they had to win.
The power of taking time to understand the other view point - not so that we win, (because it is rare in life that your argument might result in the win of a small trophy on a wooden plinth that you find in a box in an attic 25 year later) no not so that we win, but so that we can have better thoughts, do better work, find better solutions.
How many golden ideas, golden solutions have disappeared in a cloud of Discussion dust?
So the art of debate. Where we are not actually competing to win.
We are competing to better understand the other argument, so that a better solution can be found, maybe for everyone (although not always).
Too often we feel we need a position, an opinion, and we have to defend that position. But in doing so are we missing valuable learning, that gives us better perspectives, better solutions.
So maybe it’s ok not to win an argument, but take part in the Debate to understand.
eleanor
Do you Debate?