What's the fastest way to de-escalate conflict and connect with someone? Using Empathy and Acknowledgement. Here, Mark Ruffalo and some fuzzy crimson creature gives us some useful reminders about empathy. There are 3 states of empathy according to the Centre for Creative Leadership: 1. Intellectual Empathy: "getting" what the other is saying - understanding the [...]
William Ury, author of "Getting to Yes," offers an elegant, simple (but not easy) way to create agreement in even the most difficult situations -- from family conflict to, perhaps, the Middle East. Using examples of the South African Bushmen...whenever tempers rise, they hide the poison arrows in the bush and they sit and talk [...]
Listen to Brene Brown beautifully , with humour and compassion, tell her story about her own admission of vulnerability in researching what do people who are wholehearted have in common? a sense of courage to be imperfect the compassion to be kind to themselves, then others connection as a result of authenticity willing to let [...]
Tweet Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. — Marie Curie Fear.... I'm afraid to even talk about it. What is it about fear that makes us so afraid of it? Some say that Fear is [...]
Tweet If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. — Nelson Mandela Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. — Albert Einstein Nothing in life is to be feared, it [...]
Tweet How is it that a 12th century mystic can still be so alive and relevant today? In Rumi's poem, "The Guest House", he tells us to accept our emotions without getting entangled in the feelings that they produce. Being aware of how we feel in a difficult conversation, without letting our judgements about the [...]
From the Stanford Lecture Series...The Dalai Lama Talks About Compassion, Respect
Use mindfulness to investigate the way things are - be aware of your thoughts, your emotions. PJon Kabat-Zinn is professor of Medicine Emeritus and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He teaches mindfulness meditation as a [...]
Tweet Last week I facilitated a conversation with people who were 2 hours away by airplane. These two courageous individuals wanted to better understand what they both needed from one another and reach an agreement that enhanced their interpersonal communications. This request flew in the face of everything that I had ever learned about communication. [...]
Tweet Why is Communication so darn difficult? What can I do right now to make it easier? George Bernard Shaw is one of my favourite playwrights. Not only does he have a "wicked" sense of humour, he shares a unique, and somewhat surprising quality with Mick Jagger. While Mick attended the London School of Economics, [...]