The interpersonal dimension of strain often centers around a fundamental failure of either party to understand what the other is trying to say. When one person judges another s statements in terms of his own frame of reference, the lack of attention to the other s frame of reference can distort meaning and cause reactions to intentions that are not originally there. What may appear as a lack of coherence between the values and goals of those with different backgrounds presents a personal challenge to students, administrators, and faculty. In the IEP, there is opportunity for the internal and more common aspects of diversity to come together, in a non-threatening environment, with other external dimensions, such as race, ethnicity, social class, and campus culture. Special efforts to listen with understanding can overcome the tendency to judge, evaluate, approve, or disapprove the statements of others.
People are less likely to be threatened by good listeners.
They talk more freely, problems are more likely to be aired openly, and meaning is less likely to be distorted by the listener or by the speaker s reactions to the listener. This reveals another desired outcome of the IEP environment enhancing feelings of self-efficacy and overall satisfaction particularly in new and unfamiliar settings. Some of the most successful of CIC s exchanges took special effort to foster dialogue in non-threatening environments. Official activities in several exchanges, for example, began not with formal meetings but with informal get-togethers of faculty and students, sometimes on a neutral site. In most of these meetings, conversations started with a discussion of differences between participants.