Full course description
Badge Overview
This badge contains 7 modules
This badge will equip students with practical frameworks for navigating challenging discussions on public policies and contentious issues with colleagues, elected officials, and community members. Participants will learn evidenced-based communication and engagement strategies for addressing conflict and facilitating productive dialogue on difficult issues and building public trust.
Badge Objectives
Upon successful completion of this badge, you will learn how to:
1. Distinguish between technical problems and wicked problems in public life.
2. Identify why wicked problems require adaptive change rather than technical fixes.
3. Analyze how dysfunctional political culture complicates public problem-solving.
4. Differentiate between “high conflict” and “good conflict” in public deliberation.
5. Assess your own strengths and challenges in managing difficult public conversations.
6. Identify key strengths and weaknesses within their community’s civic culture.
7. Apply self‑ and community‑assessment insights to future engagement.
8. Explain the stages through which people move from raw “opinions” on complex issues to more thoughtful “public judgment.
9. Distinguish between conventional, thin, and thick forms of public engagement and their purposes.
10. Apply the “groan zone” framework to facilitation and decision‑making in difficult conversations.