by Ashari Cain
Unique statewide leadership program serves vital role
Political polarization among Americans nationally and in North Carolina continues to be of serious concern. According to the latest Unity Index report by Vanderbilt University, from the first quarter of 2023 to just the last quarter of 2023, Americans who identified as having an extreme belonging to each opposing party rose from 24% to 28%. This isn’t news to Leslie Winner, who co-founded the NC Leadership Forum over ten years ago. “Politics got radically more fractious in North Carolina; people really stopped talking to each other and instead started screaming,” Winner said.
From this concern, Leslie Winner, a liberal, and John Hood, a conservative, teamed up to form the North Carolina Leadership Forum (NCLF). Nearly a decade later, the nonprofit program is more essential and impactful than ever. Every year the program convenes cohorts of business, government, and nonprofit public policy leaders from a variety of perspectives and leads them through constructive conversations regarding North Carolina’s most pressing issues. Now housed at Duke’s Office of Community Affairs, NCLF originated in partnership with Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy and has received funding from the Duke Endowment, as well as other local and national funders.
“It’s really about trust. You really begin to foster a bond over this long period of time and interaction. Building trust-based relationships, despite disagreement, cannot be accomplished over a single lunch or one cup of coffee.”
Leslie Winner, Co-Founder of the North Carolina Leadership Forum
The design of a difficult discussion
Each academic year, an NCLF cohort meets over four sessions to discuss one topic in depth. Prior to the sessions, the steering committee identifies the main topic, focusing on controversial, relevant challenges of the state likely to merit dialogue.
Each cohort comprises leaders from numerous regions across North Carolina who commit to engage in several months of relationship-building and facilitated discussion. For the cohort’s duration, participants are purposely paired with a partner who holds a different perspective on the issues. This further encourages deep and close relationships, despite the prominent presence of different values and backgrounds. The working sessions are complemented with an array of social mixers and dinners to help foster long-term relationships.
Track record of tackling tough topics
The program’s first-ever official cohort in 2016 brought 35 regional leaders and representatives together to discuss actionable steps to address the disparity in job security. Participants in the inaugural group included Chuck McGrady (Former NC House of Rep.), Raquel Lynch (Crisis Assistance Ministry), Bob Hunter (NC Court of Appeals), and Pete Brunstetter (Novant Health).
NCLF has blossomed into a trusted and respected space for policy discussion through eight official cohorts where members of varying religious backgrounds and social, political, and personal beliefs gather to tackle topics such as health policy, elections, adequate housing, and community safety. NCLF also extended its model to convene four cohorts of leaders in local regions across North Carolina to deliberate on how to improve access to adequate housing. Following each program, the list of attendees and a discussion report are published on the NCLF website. The full community of more than 400 NCLF participants receives ongoing updates.
“Now that hundreds of North Carolina leaders have participated in our programs, we’re seeing signs of improvement in the policy conversation…It was never our goal to eliminate disagreement. Our goal is to help leaders disagree on substance without questioning each other’s motives or intelligence.”
John Hood, Co-Founder of the North Carolina Leadership Forum
NCLF’s goal is engagement, not agreement
The goal of NCLF is not agreement – it’s engagement; it’s not to alter one’s party position but to broaden one’s perspective. The goal of the NCLF is simple: to give participants the tools to approach policy conversations better and the will to continue to work together using those tools in their professions. Large polarization at the national, state, or local level does not have to amount to a social culture that breeds political hostility just because various Americans disagree.
“Our democracy is inherently plural…it’s always going to have leaders that disagree with each other fundamentally,” Winner said. “To work well to make good policy that solves problems and creates opportunities that are broadly embraced, our leaders have to have the will, the skill and the relationships they need to engage with each other effectively across these various differences.”
More information on the forum can be found on the NC Leadership Forum website.
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