Polishing Our Conversation Guides

Just when you thought our Conversation Guides couldn’t get any better…

We are so excited to let you all in on the major changes that have been made to our Conversation Guides.

Why change such a great tool? Our Guides are the heart of Living Room Conversations. There are so many great organizations working in the bridging space, bringing people together across divides. We are distinct in being open source and offering nearly 100 topics anyone can utilize to bring a group (big or small) together for a powerful conversation without any formal training. Very simply, since our Guides are so critical to what we do, we wanted to make sure they were the best they could be.

Here are highlights of what you’ll find in our Guides now:

  • Hosting language (in the PDF) throughout the Guide, walking hosts through the Conversation
  • An option to use QR codes to link to our Feedback Form
  • Information on how to be more involved with Living Room Conversations

You might want to know about the Guide review process. Our Guide Review Team is composed of individuals across the political and ideological spectrum. After a new potential Guide is created and submitted to me, I pass it along to the Guide Review Team. Over the course of a month, team members consider:

  • Does the language used in the Guide invite all sides of an issue to the conversation?
  • Do the questions invite participants to share their personal experiences rather than opinions?
  • Does the introductory paragraph tie in well with the topic questions?
  • Are there questions that seem redundant or questions that are missing from the Conversation?

By the end of the month, edits are finalized.

Any suggestions for what we tackle next? We’d love to hear about it! Part of what it means that Living Room Conversations is open-source is that we are constantly looking to improve our Conversations. Guide changes were made because we were listening to users for opportunities to improve them; we will continue to listen for such opportunities.

Becca Kearl
Community Conversations Partner
Guide Review Team Lead

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