Random collision of events can be a great surprise. Sunday, I stepped out of our rental apartment to see thousands running in the Barcelona Marathon. Our morning walk to our family’s first excursion of the day was parallel with one leg of the race. As we were walking along, voices in all sorts of different languages sounded around us. Flags from nations across the globe probably flapped in the wind from Japan to Norway to the US.

It was an incredible sight to see thousands of runners and spectators lined up from all around the world uniting for a common cause for these runners to conquer a milestone. There’s something powerful, especially at this moment, to see something uniting such a diverse population of the world.

It’s easy these days to find ideas or events that divide us. Social media is incentivized to get clicks by using divisive words and stories. There are countless news clips showing divisive language and rhetoric. Divisive is easy. Crazy thing is unity can be easy too…if we want it to be.

Two people born on opposite sides of the world may have a common love for sports. Political rivals may have similar passions for raising their kids. Two coworkers may have a completely different direction for the company but share the same passion for their organization’s success.

The divide is what makes us unique. But our similarities make us opportune for finding ways to connect and find common ground. Too often the divisiveness screams so loud that the similarities are hidden. We can choose to change our conversations by acknowledging there are differences (of course there are) but similarities exist as well to help create some common ground for dialogue.

It sounds simple but we can all use some more curiosity in our conversations. That means we must be willing to change from the lens focusing solely on our differences to a wider lens that explores commonalities we can relate to each other on. This isn’t to say topics that divide us shouldn’t be actively discussed. It’s important we have open dialogue on our differences, but we can’t solely zoom in on the differences. Healthy dialogue includes us exploring similarities as well to use a more holistic lens to have conversations.

Differences will always be there but let’s explore a question. What can we rally around together?

Take your step: the next conversation you feel there’s nothing but divide, start with curiosity of what we might have in common to discuss. We know there are differences but explore what commonalities can help create a sense of relatedness that can further open dialogue.