Although “groupthink” by definition means a group of people thinking the same things, Brittany Sickler and Karis Thompson have organized an event called Group Think that is exactly the opposite.

Group Think brings community-engaged leaders together to discuss how to create positive social change through innovative ideas. It debuted with over 50 people in attendance at 8:00 am on Wednesday, October 9, at the Stage at Island Park – what Sickler called “the early service” for 1 Million Cups, which follows directly afterwards.

The goal of Group Think, as described by Sickler and Thompson, is to provide “a platform for people pursuing interesting questions and compelling work” with the hopes that connecting these people will lead to further collaboration and community development. The topic of yesterday’s Group Think was Midwest and the Middle East, and featured Newzad Brifki, who runs a Kurdish community organization in Moorhead, and Brenna Daugherty Gerhardt, executive director for the North Dakota Humanities Council.

The event opened with a discussion between these two leaders, covering a variety of topics from the current threat posed by ISIS and what it means to the Kurdish people – Brifki emphasized that the Kurdish people are currently fighting with all they have against ISIS – to how the Humanities Council can help fund local groups that are working to make big changes.

“Ultimately we want to see thoughtful and informed citizens engaged in civil debate,” Gerhardt said. “I think we’ve come to a time in America where we just shout at each other, and we need to learn to actually listen and hold different viewpoints…and realize we’re all in this together, and all trying to go forward in a positive direction.”

Gerhardt said she hopes events like Group Think can lead to conversations between the Humanities Council and businesses, that will allow the state to help them with their cause.

The discussion then opened into a question and answer session between the speakers and the audience, and concluded with time to chat individually with the speakers in the atrium over cups of coffee. Sickler said she thinks the event went really well.

“I’ve heard some good feedback, suggestions, and people that are supportive,” she said. “We hope to in the future have a wide range of not just entrepreneurs, but students, corporations that are involved in all sorts of things that are having a positive social change. We’re working towards getting ourselves more involved and making our community a better place.”

Note from Editor in Chief: Emerging Prairie’s sole focus in its news coverage is technology and innovation entrepreneurship.  Our coverage of this event stems from its origins as an innovative spinout of our 1 Million Cups event.  Our coverage areas remain the same and, in general, we will not be covering individual Group Think events unless their topics are focused on technology or innovation in entrepreneurship.  We encourage all of our readers to participate with Group Think to the extent they are interested in its topics.

 

All photos taken by Marisa Jackels.