Public Forums where you are face to face with people  facilitated by third party intercessors produce results. During the last 2 years or so I’ve become involved in public forums – health, public policy, focus groups, and even transforming training into forum type discussions amongst professionals. My conclusion to date – public forums are not for the squeamish. When there is a positive outcome it feels great – screw it up and it’s a disconcerting and humbling experience. So why do it? Forums are needed more than ever. Why? Because we’re getting too used and acculturated to polls and because without them significant mistakes by decision makers continue to be made at a time where productive decisions are most needed. We no longer live on an island – I do – but it is a (disputed) part of the US. So what lessons have I learned from forums?

You have to be good at working with groups which range from the totally disparate to those who are uniformly positional in their view and many shades in between – for example dominated by one individual.

You need a warm-up so they can get to know you and - you them.

You need to be agile and flexible because if you’re not you can easily lose their confidence resulting in defensive or aggressive behavior.

Although you may not need to know the subject you have to able to summarize, reframe, and demonstrate you have captured the inputs which are being provided.

You have to be free of bias and demonstrate such freedom because you will be challenged.

You have to be assertive in a way that does not become identified as aggression.

You have to have some metric whether or not the group is producing and if it is not knowing what to do about it.

You control process but such control cannot be perceived as manipulation.

You have to be ready to deal with being called out (hopefully in a verbal not physical sense) and be able to deal with it effectively.

Ok enough – so you say all these things above – how do you get there? Research, study, practice, work with experienced facilitators, get mentored in the process, observe and learn, facilitate – followed by gleaning lessons learned and applied. To conduct research these days you have to be adept at coming up with search terms, scan the results, choose wisely - read and apply what you’ve learned.

Practice in front of all types of audiences – friendly to hostile – let yourself be observed and critiqued. Videotape yourself in one of your forums and review and re-review how you’ve done – make the necessary adjustments.

Develop a rhythm that suits your capabilities.  If you think about teams which win you will probably notice that they establish a dominating rhythm whereas their opponents do not. Its like a dancing – you may know the steps – the challenge is in leading your partner into a sequence which results in a smooth and graceful experience both for yourself and your partner.

Facilitating forums is a privilege and an honor so doing it well and successfully should provide a great deal of satisfaction and produce results which might swing processes more into balance between polling and the mining of the mind which takes place in forums.

History is a great teacher. However, to learn what it teaches us demands effort and wisdom to apply the lessons learned. Too often wisdom is lacking as lessons are re-learned and not applied time and again. So, because I’ve had a need to conduct research for several programs in video let me share a historical scenario and let’s see what Hawai’i and it’s experience with epidemics, focusing on leprosy, offers as a lesson in the public policy arena if and when we are called to be intercessors as mediators or facilitators.

Like smallpox, syphilis, cholera – leprosy was unknown to native Hawaiian’s until it made its appearance around 1850. It spread quickly. By 1865 the monarchy and legislature passed an Act to segregate those with, as well as those suspected of having, leprosy. A perfectly logical act – no? After all the disease had reached epidemic proportions, there was no effective treatment, and leprosy was a death warrant. The Act was called “Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy of the Nation of Hawaii” and it was strictly enforced – eventually other pieces of legislation were added that made it a crime to help anyone infected evade being segregated to a jut of land on Molokai island surrounded on 3 sides by ocean while the fourth faced imposing and hard to climb cliffs.

The segregated lepers, it was assumed, would be able to make a subsistence living through herding, agriculture, and fishing. Certainly they would build shelter or themselves and be self policing and governing in Hawaiian fashion – eminently humane however that’s not quite the way it turned out until the arrival of Father Damian and after him other religious and medical professionals came to support the sick and dying.

So what went wrong? What goes wrong time and again?  Well let’s start with a global perspective followed by reflection on the period in Hawaii’s history. The 1800’s were a period of colonialism for the so called Western Nations who appeared to be destined to rule the world. There was racism coupled with  a feeling of superiority by the colonial nations over native populations. Slavery was still practiced in America. Consequently there was a strongly held view that racial inferiority by natives was aptly demonstrated by their lack of immunity to diseases.

As for Hawaii - at the time Hawaii was an independent nation governed by a monarchy, which to some degree was trying to emulate Western monarchies, trying to find its way with  foreigners gaining increasing influence (and would eventually overthrow the monarchy at the end of the century). In the area of health they were the experts since they brought forth their knowledge of medicine. So it is little surprise that by the time leprosy had grown into an epidemic the Hawaii Health board was dominated by Westerners who shared the global view - inferiority of the native population and little regard for native culture, practices, and lifestyle. So they pushed the monarchy into adopting a segregation policy and aimed at ensuring enforcement was focused on native victims. They exhibited disregard to the native populations ties to their land, ancestry, and family. So in addition to the harm the disease was calling to physical health - being segregation had a significant and negative cultural and psychological impact on Hawaiians.

It is interesting to note, from the literature, that Hawaiians did not look at leprosy the same way that foreigners did. One example cited is in regards to the disfigurement which progresses with the disease. Hawaiians did not feel the revulsion typical of foreigners in the presence of lepers. They did not have the same fear of contagion from contact with lepers and family ties were not to be disturbed. Yet it happened, was forced upon them, and along with it came further confusion about culture, protest, and contributed to loss of identity.

So Father Damian, now a saint to Catholics,  already present on the islands doing missionary work is offered an opportunity to work with lepers for a limited amount of time and instead decides the colony is where he belongs and remains there until his death. Arriving at the colony with his Bishop – conditions could not be worse – people are acting and living like wild animals with no shelters to speak of and debauching themselves through opium, sexual promiscuity, gambling, you name it  and why not we are the living dead aren’t we. Along with this behavior there is no governance only despair.

Father Damian decides to make a difference and acts. He physically intercedes to stop debauchery ( never fully successfully) and takes steps to energize dignity. He uses physical acts – like his own skills and labor – and religion to act as catalysts towards a new beginning. And, does he write letters? – he is prolific and perseverant. Before too long his story becomes internationally known and contributions start pouring in. He is a catalyst, including his own physical acts at providing houses, a water system, a place for worship, and a true cemetery for the deceased. He is not without controversy. One cleric writes a destructive portrait of Damien which they write is itself destroyed by none other than author Robert Louis Stevenson. Damian pays a heavy price by contracting and dying from the ravages of leprosy. His compassionate approach comes to the notice of the monarchy which grants him its highest award. Today the area used for segregation is called Kalapapa and it still has a few patients cured of leprosy and is sacred ground – however – all of Hawaii is sacred to natives.

So what’s the lesson in the pubic policy arena to me if and when I am asked to intercede?

1.       Racism in any form must not be used as a means of dealing with epidemics because judgment is not only impaired it becomes a bias not founded on scientific but rather emotional grounds and as emotions go up judgment goes down.

2.       Alternatives  must take into account “culture” in a very broad sense because the impact of every decision can expand beyond the epidemic itself and into the general population.

3.       Alternatives identified need to include objective consideration by representatives of the culture who must have a say in the decision.

4.       Decision makers must include consideration of steps to be taken to ensure that the number of assumptions made are minimized – as an example in Molokai’s case what support was needed on site instead of assuming lepers would make their own accommodation towards subsistence living.

5.       Strong leadership is required from the beginning (including on site) which is built into decisions and bought into by the victims and supporters needed to deal with the situation.

Interestingly I have not found any “what if” studies which would indicate what would have happened if segregation had not been the means by which this epidemic was dealt with. Would the number of cases continued to grow if Hawaiian families had been allowed to care for their own sick? What I have found is that there were foreigners who became lepers who somehow managed to escape Molokai but not the disease itself. The only leper exiled to the colony I read about was about a “black” man who was suspected of being infected, sent to Molokai, became a pest, evaluated as not being infected and ejected from the colony despite his protestations to the contrary.

Hopefully these observations have some validity based on the research I have done – not cited here and mostly internet and discussion based – in this public policy arena. Beyond this the issue of what happened and is happening  to native Hawaiians and ‘locals’ is many – many – faceted and will hopefully include re-learning lessons from the 1800’s followed by application to present day and future scenarios.