This training does not seek to force participants to agree with any one position. Instead, our goal is to increase participants’ ability to see the world through another person’s ideological perspective. This reduces contempt for others while increasing compassion, respect, understanding, and the complexity necessary for them to depolarize difficult conversations that lead to win-win solutions in their personal, professional, and civic life. This training understands that we are all connected.
Increasing Empathy and Diversity Intelligence
”Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation, and this means we must develop a world perspective…
It boils down to this: all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cultural Translation ©: Depolarizing Difficult Conversations
This training helps us celebrate differences by developing worldview diversity that enhances our ability to
listen compassionately,
understand complexity,
and translate authentically.
It reduces bias and discrimination by
encouraging compassion for all
by better understanding the complexity of humanity.
The Training Model
The model for Cultural Translation © has been tested over hundreds of coaching success training with leaders in challenging personal situations. In the business world, this model has helped hundreds of social venture start-ups to understand that the investor’s viewpoint is critical to getting funded by some of today’s leading social entrepreneurs. And the most significant test and challenge have been in the polarized political world, where it has been the core of many of the most successful social change policy success stories in the past thirty years.
Program Snapshot
1-Day Training Options: April 15; May 20; June 17
Hours: Noon – 7 PM (EST) with a 1-hour lunch break
Venue: Online (Zoom)
Tuition Cost: Free
Group Size: 10 – 12 people
Target Audience: Leaders who seek to develop a multi-perspectival cultural translator skill set.
Cheryl Robertson brings over 30 years of experience in human resource management, leadership training and development within the DC community. Following her passion to support professionals through coaching, she launched her coaching business, InnerGrow Integrated Coaching, LLC, in 2019, helping leaders find a path forward to their desired success. She also created SoulFull Life University in 2021. She brings a unique network of African American leaders and networks in the DC Government potential partners.
Rich Tafel has served as a community leader and pastor for the last seven years. Tafel is a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School and served as an Assistant Minister in the Harvard Memorial Church.
Tafel currently serves as the Director of Marcum Social Capital Advisors, working with venture strategists, and has done leadership coaching for hundreds of social ventures. He is co-founder of the American Project at Pepperdine School of Public Policy, focusing on the future of healthy conservatism in America. Tafel founded Log Cabin Republicans in 1993 in Washington DC, and led that organization for decades. He is the author of “Party Crasher” (1999), and was also one of the earliest champions for gay marriage. Tafel was recently elected as the President of the Board at Citizen University. Project Role: Program Director responsible curriculum development, training for the overarching success of the initiative from design to execution, and to impact evaluation; Lead Trainer, supporting curriculum design and delivery for target audiences. The Project would use Tafel’s intellectual property as the basis of our work.
Ryan Nakade is a leading professional mediator and facilitator, who conducts public workshops specializing in depolarization and dialogue across differences. He is passionate about applying conflict resolution practices to the political realm. Through his cutting-edge project called cure-pdx, Nakade works with former extremists to counter radicalization and extremist violence, focusing on outreach to rural conservative communities. Nakade is also a co-host of the Meta Ideological Podcast, which will be used to promote the initiative.
Annabel Park is an activist, community organizer, and renowned documentary filmmaker. Park is also the founder of the Coffee Party, a grassroots organization promoting civil dialogue and democratic reforms, in response to the Tea Party in 2010. She has launched a number of popular primarily progressive online communities such as: The Talk on Main Street, Bridge the Divide, America Welcomes Refugees, Facing Humanity, and others. Park also serves as the co-host of the Democracy in America Podcast, which will be used to promote the initiative. She is of South Korean descent.
Our Approach
- We work with a talented team of executive coaches and leadership development experts, policy and business advisors, as well as community change makers to bring this learning experience to the public. As such our curriculum brings both the academic rigour as well as practical experience into the classroom to help the participants understand how they can apply the learned concepts to their own real life situations immediately.
- We use Kirkpatrick’s model to evaluate the impact of the intervention, but also go deeper to assess our impact through pre- and post-assessments, and facilitated focus groups with all stakeholders.
- We partner with public, private, non-profit and faith-based organizations to customize the program experience, including program delivery methods, specific case studies and wrap-around services to their unique leadership and organizational challenges. Don’t hesitate to reach out to our team for a conversation on how this program experience can be translated into your own professional and community culture.
Public Squared is a strategy company created in 2012 to increase citizens’ impact in the public square. It provides strategy and hosts collaborative events for stakeholders from different perspectives to reach common goals.
Public Squared Project, under the fiscal sponsorship of Companies for Causes, is a 501(c)(3) organization, based in Washington, DC.
Program Agenda
Training Part 1: Active Compassionate Listening (ACL)
- LUT Model: Listening Compassionately, Understanding Complexity, Translating Authentically
- Exercises: Negative vs. Positive Listening; Conflating Facts and Stories;
Training Part 2: Understanding Worldviews
- Traditional, Modern and Post-Modern worldviews and their complexity
- Exercises: The World View Quiz; I am Multitudes: Understanding My Complexity; Three Values Reaction; My Worldview Story
- Worldviews in the Workplace
- Exercise: Pitch My Start-Up
- Understanding Political Worldviews
- Case Study: AIDS Drugs for Africa (PEPFAR)
Training Part 3: Translating Worldviews
- Translating Personal Worldview
- Exercises: I Changed My Mind; I’m Afraid I Have to Disagree with Me Group; Flipping MY Story; Worldview Bingo
Training Part 4: The Power of Persuasion and Cooperation
- Translating in My Life
- Application Exercise: Cultural Translation Challenge in Personal, Professional, or Civic Life
Program Follow-On
- Group Coaching Program for Cultural Translation Certification
- Group Retreat for Leadership Teams
Contact Our Team
Tony Raffa is an entrepreneur and creator of multiple start-ups, such as DSY, LLC and Zombie Coffee & Donuts. Raffa currently works with Marcum Social Capital Advisors, helping social companies develop new strategies and grow. He has served as a treasurer and a financial manager for several large organizations and oversees program and budget management for Cultural Translators.
Kateryna Pyatybratova is a marketing and business development expert in the education space, with over 12 years of experience working with the DC Government and the local community. Since 2011 Pyatybratova directed the nationally recognized Cafritz Awards Program, which highlights significant accomplishments by District of Columbia Government employees in improving the quality of life for all those who live, work, do business, and visit the nation’s capital.
Ready to become a Cultural Translator ©?
Our current list of organizational partners and clients include faith groups, non-profits and corporate institutions. Reach out to our team with questions and requests about training options right for you!