His name is Poppa Smurf (pronounced Papa). He favors baseball uniforms as his attire. He’s done felony time for drugs. Yet he was a key figure in preventing Charleston, SC from 
descending into chaos the night nine Black worshippers were slaughtered in their church by a White supremacist in 2015.
Two other key figures in preventing that chaos were Greg Mullen, Charleston’s White Chief of Police, and Margaret Seidler, a leadership consultant with whom Chief Mullen and the Charleston community had worked for the preceding five years. (These three presented at the recent annual meeting of the
Society of Consulting Psychology.)
Mullen had originally hired Seidler to help his department, in partnership with the community, create a strategic plan that would enable it, in the words of their mission statement, to “. . . serve all people within our jurisdiction with respect, fairness, and compassion.” Unlike many mission statements, this one was sincere. Proof of that sincerity was provided on the awful night of the slaughter, and in the days that followed.
When he got word of the slaughter, Mullen was devastated. Yet he knew that he had to rein in his emotions in order to help his community respond to this tragedy. He turned to Poppa Smurf, a member of the Black community, and asked, “Can you all give me time to work this case?” Based on the trust that had developed over the preceding year, he was granted the chance to do so. But it was temporary. And conditional. He and his department had to perform.
In many cities, police and the Black community are often at odds, with decades of mutual distrust between them. It had certainly been that way in Charleston. But the effort invested by all
parties in creating that strategic plan laid the groundwork for conditional trust. Without that foundation, Charleston almost certainly would have become like so many other cities in response to such tragedies – a city at war with itself.
One of the key tools that Seidler brought to her work in facilitating their strategic planning was The Polarity Map. A polarity map is a tool used to analyze and manage complex opposing values or perspectives that are both necessary and interdependent. Instead of treating issues as problems to solve, with a single “right” answer, polarity mapping helps balance competing forces to achieve the best outcomes.
Normally with polarities, or issues with polar opposite stands, the key word is “or.” You have to choose. It’s either this way or that way. One is right, one is wrong. Such polarities become a zero-sum game, with winners and losers. They become toxic, poisonous to both sides, particularly when manipulated by conflict entrepreneurs – those politicians and media who fan the flames of hate for their own selfish purposes. (You can read more about conflict entrepreneurs and how to overcome their impact in A Little Book to Save Humanity – https://theeqpress.com )
A Polarity Map turns “or” into “and.” That change allows well-intended people to find creative ways to integrate the best parts of both sides of an issue. The strategic plan created for Charleston by its police department actually looked at five polarities. The results were then used to create concrete strategies to benefit the entire city, with all of its communities.
After the Mother Emanuel AME Church massacre, this same process was used with 857 people, including police officers and members of an
untrusting community. A facilitator familiar with the Polarity Map walked the group through a series of structured steps. The structure helped to keep amygdala-driven emotions from boiling over, and helped ensure that all important issues were addressed.
To illustrate the process, let’s look at just one polarity: Law Enforcement and Community Support. In many communities, these two elements are seen as competing, particularly in areas of high poverty and high crime. Police often see such areas as needing a tight hand. Members of those communities often view the police as an invading army. As the police see it, “Either you’ll accept our firm crackdowns or you’ll have chaos and constantly feel unsafe.” As the community sees it, “Either you’ll listen to us and respect our input, because we know more about our community than you do, or we’ll treat you like the invading army that you are, and attack you to save ourselves.”
Let’s take a look at how the Polarity Map for Law Enforcement and Community Support might have been developed.
Step One: The group lists the potential positive outcomes of each side of the polarity, in this case, Law Enforcement and Community Support. Two hoped for outcomes of having Law Enforcement in Charleston were: 1) Decreased crime, and 2) Improved quality of life through reduced fear of crime. Two hoped for outcomes of Community Support were 1) Shared accountability for safety, and 2) Citizens understanding enforcement strategies.
Step Two: The group then lists the potential negatives of over-doing each side of the polarity. In this case, for Law Enforcement 1) “Big Brother” thinking, and 2) “Us vs Them” mentality were concerns. For Community Support 1) Disregard for law enforcement, and 2) Community dictates enforcement policies were recognized.
Step Three: Action steps to gain the positives of each end of the polarity are identified. In Charleston, two action steps identified for Law Enforcement were: 1) Increase patrol/beat integrity, and 2) Leverage other city resources. Action steps identified for Community Support were 1) Attend community meetings, and 2) Quality of life initiatives.
Step Four: Identify warning signs that one polarity or the other is beginning to be overemphasized. Warning signs of over-emphasizing Law Enforcement included 1) Quota mentality, and 2) Rising numbers of unsuccessful prosecutions. Warning signs of too much emphasis on Community Support included 1) Spike in crime, and 2) Deviations from strategic plan/mission.
The Polarity Map process does a number of things:
- It brings diverse groups together to engage in a constructive process, thereby helping to build trust. People actually talk with and listen to each other. It gives everyone a chance to reality-test their preconceived impressions of “the other.”
- It helps people see both sides of the polarity, how each is needed.
- Creative solutions emerge that would not have been seen otherwise.
- Relationships are built. Lives are changed.
To illustrate that last point, Chief Mullen wrote a letter to the Pardon/Parole Board of South Carolina, asking that Poppa Smurf be pardoned for his felony drug offenses, in recognition of his role as a conduit between the police and Black Community before the shooting and his critical role in mitigating anger and outrage after the shooting. In the words of Seidler: “The Parole Board couldn’t get us out of the room fast enough to approve the request.”
In the presentation by Mullen, Smurf, and Seidler at the Society meeting, Poppa Smurf was in tears when this letter was shared with us. He was once again overwhelmed by the change this pardon had meant for his life, and by the fact that a White police chief would write such a letter, even though the pardon had been issued five years earlier.
But Chief Mullen would be the first to say that these events, and the relationships that developed during the strategic planning process, and, more intensely, in the aftermath of the shooting, changed his life just as much. He wrote that letter out of genuine personal gratitude.
What are the EQ skills participants need to create a successful Polarity Map? What are the EQ skills required to weather a crisis, such as the one that happened in Charleston? Probably most of them, but here are a few candidates:
- Emotional Self-Awareness: Being able to notice when disruptive emotions are boiling up inside of you.
- Impulse Control: Keeping yourself from lashing out in response to those emotions.
- Flexibility: Looking at both sides of an issue.
- Empathy: Being able to see the interests and needs of the people on the other side
- Self-Regard: Respecting yourself enough that you don’t always have to be right.
Final Thought: Don’t believe the conflict entrepreneurs. Believe Peter Pregman, author of Humankind. We humans have the capacity for extending great kindness to each other. We just have to build the context within which it can happen, as well as the personal skills to do so.
Note: The Polarity Map was designed by Barry Johnson, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Thought Leader of Polarity Partnerships (https://www.polaritypartnerships.com/ )
