Inviting difference is a concept I’ve developed after embracing the incredible work by Sonja Foss, Cindy Griffin, and Karen Foss, along with a number of other prolific scholars/researchers. Invitational rhetoric was created as a different approach to public speaking. Typically, the goal of public speaking is to persuade. The problem this creates is the power dynamic involved in trying to convince someone you’re right and/or they’re wrong. More than anything, this traditional focus on persuasion ignores the identities and experiences involved.

This is where invitational rhetoric differs. It is “an invitation to understanding as a means to create a relationship rooted in equality, immanent value, and self-determination. Invitational rhetoric constitutes an invitation to the audience to enter the [speaker’s] world and to see it as the [speaker] does.” The people involved do not judge or denigrate the perspective of others, even if they differ dramatically.

This approach allows for grace, understanding, and the inherent value we all have. I embrace this perspective not only for public speaking, but as an approach and perspective ideal when communicating with and leading others. By inviting difference, we acknowledge and embrace the varying identities and experiences of those around us—finding the inherent value in those differences. It is my belief that we need to embrace difference to truly make a difference.