Dear Members of the HMS Community:
Last year, I charged a 16-member committee to explore the state of open inquiry and public discourse in our pluralistic HMS community and to provide guidance on how we can best promote a culture of respectful dialogue, scholarly debate, and engagement across differences. I am pleased to share the final report from the Working Group on Open Inquiry. I want to thank the entire working group for its enthusiastic dedication, and I especially want to acknowledge Jeffrey Flier, the group’s chair, former HMS dean, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and the George Higginson Professor of Physiology and Medicine at HMS, for his critical leadership in this area.
The report frames open inquiry as a proactive habit and an aspiration without end — which, if properly nurtured, promotes a vibrant intellectual community that is welcoming to a diverse array of perspectives. Constructive dialogue is a practice that requires constant cultivation, and we each have a role to play in advancing and sustaining it. For members of our community to feel comfortable expressing themselves, we must all work hard to cultivate critical thinking skills, receptivity to new ideas, and a willingness to listen with curiosity and compassion.
It is important to note that the working group found that many existing HMS initiatives are already aimed at enhancing open inquiry — for example, the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI) has trained campus faculty, staff, and student leaders in open inquiry and helped produce training materials for student orientation activities. Our recently revised mission and community values also reflect a strong commitment to civil discourse, reflection, and respectful dialogue.
Above and beyond current efforts, the working group is recommending additional steps, including developing and deploying materials and programs designed to bolster open inquiry and holding regular scholarly fora to demonstrate constructive dialogue around controversial issues. I look forward to coordinating with standing groups that will implement these recommendations in support of an even stronger HMS.
In the spirit of advancing open inquiry, I hope you will save the date and join us on May 8 for a special presentation by Julia Minson, professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School and author of How to Disagree Better. Her research into how people engage with opinions, values, and judgments that conflict with their own is highly relevant and thought-provoking. Stay tuned for more details.
I believe that physicians, scientists, and health care scholars have the potential to be among the most powerful modelers of civil discourse. Our minds are trained for analysis and careful discernment; with consistent practice, we can open our minds to hear the arguments of others. Adopting curiosity as a disciplined habit — especially when we encounter views that challenge us — is essential to our shared academic mission.
I invite each of you to read the working group’s report, engage with its recommendations, and look for opportunities in your own spheres of influence to foster open inquiry. Together, we can strengthen HMS as a community where serious ideas are tested, differences are engaged with rigor and respect, and every member feels empowered to speak and to listen.
Sincerely,
George Q. Daley
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Harvard University