Bridging Differences: What It Is and What It Isn’t

We define bridging differences as both: (a) seeing the humanity of people or groups whose backgrounds or views differ from your own; and (b) better understanding their perspectives. It doesn’t require endorsing or even agreeing with that other perspective, but it does lay the groundwork for more positive attitudes and relationships.

Bridging doesn’t have an agenda, it seeks to understand—even when it’s difficult. This doesn’t mean that everyone agrees and gets along all the time. It means staying open to the possibility that your way of doing things isn’t the only way; that some of your beliefs or assumptions might be incomplete or mistaken; and that engaging with, and learning to live and work together with people or groups who don’t look, think, or act like you is at the heart of how our society works. 

As bridgers, we not only denounce dehumanization and violence in all of its forms—we work every day to counter it. Bridging calls on us to stay open in the face of difference, and to resist the pull toward judgment or withdrawal. That’s why it draws on virtues like courage, curiosity, patience, humility, justice, and empathy—helping us move toward understanding, accountability, and repair.

Just as important as knowing what bridging is, it’s important to know what it is not:

• Bridging does not require you to put yourself in harm's way—to bridge with someone who threatens your personal safety or your right to exist. For this reason, bridging is not the right choice with every person, in every situation.
• Bridging isn’t about convincing or converting. It’s not a strategy to win an argument or win people over to your side. If that’s your motivation for trying to engage with someone different from you, there’s a good chance you’ll wind up further apart than when you started.
• Bridging does not require compromise, neutrality, or reaching consensus. You can disagree. You can speak your truth. And you can do so without abandoning your identity or what matters most to you. It means being clear about your values and being open to understanding how others came to theirs. 
• Bridging is also not yours to do alone. All sides must be willing to engage, with openness and respect. It’s not your job alone to carry the weight of understanding, especially when the conditions for bridging don’t yet exist, like when there’s no mutual willingness to engage, no baseline of respect, or very real threats to one side’s safety or dignity.

Beyond individual practice, bridging is a principle for building communities–helping us move from personal connection to collective action, and creating spaces where dialogue, collaboration, and understanding across differences become part of everyday life.  

Ultimately, bridging is about building trust in the idea that we’re better off when we engage, not withdraw—and work to find ways to live, lead, and co-create together. Because we don’t have to agree on everything to believe in something better.