Know the Stranger will Change You

To us, hospitality means lowering barriers to participation and making people with diverse perspectives feel comfortable in a discussion in the same room, as well as inviting those perspectives to mold the conversation in new and unimaginable ways.

The work of reinventing the economy excludes through subtle forms, such as the use of technical language that vets who is “in the know.” And cultural practices reinforce which imaginations are allowed and which are dismissed. Our understanding of enlarging the table includes a radical form of hospitality, in which we invite and engage the stranger, knowing the stranger will change us rather than expecting to change them.

Hospitality in this ancient definition protects a place for everyone to engage. We think about hospitable places, and ways that we can welcome a diversity of voices and outlooks into our work. While the hospitality industry might make you think this value is about making us look good when you visit, we value deeply the opportunity to be changed by you, to have our outlook changed through conversation, openness, and honesty. Hospitality lets people know they have been invited, and that they are valued.

Read more about our other values: invitation and grace.