Toxic Polarization & Its Causes

Kristin Hansen of Civic Health Project with Tara Leweling of Allstate

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On February 24, 2022, we spoke with Kristin Hansen of Civic Health Project with special guest Tara Leweling of Allstate to explore “Toxic Polarization and How Business Can Help”

Businesses of all sizes, regions and industries are being impacted internally and externally by toxic political polarization in the United States and beyond. Growing anger and divided narratives have left businesses pushed to pick sides, and contributed to rising reputational risk, difficulty recruiting, retaining and engaging employees, increasing scrutiny, backlash, repeated crises and ongoing uncertainty in the business environment.

As election campaigns get underway in 2022, executives are looking for deeper understanding and practical strategies for helping the country navigate this difficult time, for practical reasons and out of personal concern.

In this module, we explore:

• What is toxic polarization? How does it happen?
• Why is toxic polarization at such an all-time high now?
• Why should business be concerned?

To explore these questions, please join us for an interactive dialogue with Kristin Hansen, Executive Director of Civic Health Project. Kristin is on the advisory boards of All Sides, Business for America, and Listen First Project, and serves as a year-round lecturer in Strategic Communications at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce (CPRT)’s Expert Dialogues are in-depth, recorded conversations with academic experts, stakeholder advocates and business practitioners to provide our members and other CPR champions with the expertise and context they need to develop principled,proactive CPR strategies. We invite those interested in a constructive, non-partisan, principles-based discussion.

The full transcript for this module is available here. 

KEYWORDS: #CorporatePoliticalResponsibility #ESG #CPR_Responsibility #Stakeholders #Polarization #CivicEngagement #CPR_Trends