By Katia Del Rivero

One morning, three teams.
On Monday, July 2nd I arrived at the Reforma offices in Mexico City, I had several dialogue sessions scheduled.
The main premise of the Blumenstein Theory dialogue process is that all contributions no matter how opposite, irreconcilable and apparently polarized and paradoxical, are welcome.
So, the day after the elections, there wasn’t a better example than the elections result? So I named examples whit contributions like “I’m happy” and “I’m worried, sad, overwhelmed” and both will be equally valued and welcome in dialogue.
In the first team, there was a feeling of uncertainty, and concern facing the result of the previous day elections. I felt identified because I was uncertain and concerned too.
In the second team, conditions were similar “I am concerned” and “I am worried” where received with identification. Those who said “This is the best thing that could happen to us” where an example of how different they could be, and they didn’t feel identified.
I arrived late with the third team, and José Luis, the dear colleague with whom I’m participating in this project, choose to start with the welcome round. When I joined them I started with the same phrase in the introduction: “You can say this is a disgrace”. At that moment José Luis had a reaction of surprise and it seemed to me, of awkwardness, and he said: “Careful, everyone is supporting AMLO here!”
The group smiled, honestly, I don’t know if they did it because of education or sincerely. I had the feeling that air could have been cut with scissors. So in this conditions, the dialogue started.
Round to round we got deeper, exploring new dimensions, discovering unspoken perspectives, feeling free of expressing what we couldn’t before, sharing needs, constructing from different ideas and approaches, finding similarities and discovering that each of us in his/her own thoughts, feelings, and needs, has a space of contribution and is welcome.
The dialogue was over, the proposals emerged, the accords were documented and when we dived into the closing round the atmosphere was completely different. You could almost breathe peace.
We entered the closing round and a boy called Rafael closed the round saying: “I wish that this extraordinary thing we’ve co-created in this microcosm we are capable to co-created in the macrocosm called Mexico.”
I could almost say that a happiness tear rolled through my cheek.
Mexico in Peace?
After a week of observing how we are still in this atmosphere of insults, disqualification and devalue, I believe is time to co-build together the Mexico we want. And we must remember that we are all welcome, those who are in favor of AMLO, and those who are against him, those who consider there’s a new chance, and those who think that everything is going to be the same old PRI, those who think it will be worse, and those who don’t fit in any of the groups mentioned before.
Because it doesn’t matter what you think today, nothing is written. The future will be the one we co-create together. And how can we build together in the middle of this disqualification atmosphere?
If you voted for AMLO and you are happy, great, that doesn’t mean that those who didn’t aren’t a part of this country and they need to feel confident enough to contribute. What can you do to achieve this?
Like Mandela once said, “It’s not time to celebrate a revenge, it’s time to build a nation.”
You voted against AMLO and you are worried, angry, concerned that he won. Maybe it’s time that you recognize what things did your party and candidate did to get to this point. If we don’t understand the responsibility of what just happened there will be no way to build. And the best way to understand this responsibility is accepting that what we have and turn that anger into construction actions. Please, don’t devalue those who voted for him. We all belong to the same country.
Finally, let us stop looking at each other, and look forward to the same purpose that, regardless of our differences, vision, candidate, party, etc, moves us together. The vision of a Mexico that can grow, improve, develop and transform into a safe and flourisihing place to live.
Like Michael Blumenstein used to say, “Let’s do something good with what we have”. That’s the best thing we can do after a choice that’s been made.
From Micro to Macro and from Macro to Micro
One of Michael’s favorite words was “consistency”. If the theory isn’t consistent, sooner or later life will proof you “the gap”. If the methodology isn’t consistent sooner or later you’ll find out it doesn’t work. If the form isn’t consistent sooner or later it will stop working.
And one of the main characteristics of the Blumenstein Theory is its consistency. It can be useful for a team that wants to co-build a new leadership model, different, innovative, useful, designed for them and according to their needs, as well it can help us improve our relationships and find a better family purpose that creates a healthy environment for our children to develop, likewise it can be helpful for a company to discover where it’s heading and how to move forward, the same goes to a nation that wants to learn to co-build the country they cherish.
The reason? It’s quite simple, all of this is built upon human relations, and curiously is “social construction” one of the “subjects” that as humankind we fail.
In the Blumenstein Theory, they’re forms for dialogue, future building, purpose homologation, construction form difference. The only condition: for you to will it!… Do you?
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