(Suggested Completion Date: June 15th)

Welcome to the first part of the Better Conversations book study.  This chapter, in a nut shell, introduced us to the two main pillars of the book: creating better conversations by building better communication beliefs and habits.  It would be good start off this book study with a couple of questions to get us thinking about habits and beliefs.  Using the comment feature at the bottom of this post discuss:

1. How has education started to change from a “banking education” mindset?
2. In what ways are you and/or your schools still functioning as “top down” communicators?
3. What chapter or Conversation Belief/Habit do you most look forward to learning about?

Feel free to reply to others comments.

FYI. Names are posted, and the website is visible, so lets focus on building up instead of ranting.

(Suggested Completion Date: June 29th)

Welcome to the second part of the Better Conversations book study.  Chapter two focuses on the 6 Better Conversations Beliefs:

• I see conversation partners as equals
• I want to hear what other have to say
• I believe people should have a lot of autonomy
• I don’t judge others
• Conversation should be back and forth
• Conversation should be life-giving

These beliefs fuel the ten habits discussed in the rest of the book. Let’s use the comment feature at the bottom of this post discuss the following topics.  Feel free to chime in with other questions or thought you have and reply to someone else’s post.

1. Which of the 6 beliefs do you struggle with the most?
2. As coaches and educators how can we value the opinions of our fellow coworkers and students?
3. What chapter or Conversation Belief/Habit do you most look forward to learning about?
4. On page 32, Knight says, “Respecting others’ needs for autonomy is also a good thing to do simply because trying to control others is dehumanizing.”  Is dehumanizing too strong (or not strong enough) of a word in this context?  Explain.

FYI. Names are posted, and the website is visible, so lets focus on building up instead of ranting.

(Suggested Completion Date: July 13th)

Chapter three is about listening with Empathy.  Knight identifies two types of empathy:

• Affective Empathy: sharing or mirroring another person’s emotions
• Cognitive Empathy: making an imaginative leap and recognizing that other people have different tastes, experiences, and world views than our own.

To become a more empathetic listener Knight talks about 4 strategies:

1. Commit to listen
2. Make sure your partner is the speaker
3. Pause before you speak and ask, “Will my comment open up or close down this conversation?”
4. Don’t interrupt

For our discussion on this chapter, lets use a few of the looking back and looking ahead questions on pages 60-65.  As usual, we will use the comment feature at the bottom of this post for discussion.

1. Looking back at a conversation where you attempted to identify empathy, how well did you perceive the spoken and unspoken needs your conversation partner had? (60)
2. Looking ahead at a future conversation, what can you do to make sure you focus on the emotions and needs of others? (65)

Feel free to reply to others comments.

FYI. Names are posted, and the website is visible, so lets focus on building up instead of ranting.

(Suggested Completion Date: July 27th)

Welcome to the fourth part of the Better Conversations book study.  In this chapter Jim Knight focusing on fostering dialogue.  Dialogue can be pratical (everyone is involved in the conversation) or moral (fully humanizing conversation partners instead of objectifying). To foster better dialogue you should balance advocacy and inquiry.

Advocacy

• Consider others’ thoughts and feelings
• Clarify the meaning of words and concepts
• Provide contextual information other need so they can understand what we are sharing
• Identify our false assumptions
• Use stories and analogies to help ideas come to life

Inguiry

• Be humble
• Listen and empathy
• Open ourselves to new ideas
• Surface and suspend assumptions

Let’s use the comment feature below to discuss some principles of better dialogue.

1. Which of the five advocacy strategies (74-78) do you struggle with and which ONE strategy do you want to focus on to improve?
2. Which of the four inquiry strategies (78-83) do are you the best at and which ONE strategy do you want to focus on to improve?

Feel free to reply to others comments.

FYI. Names are posted, and the website is visible, so lets focus on building up instead of ranting.

(Suggested Completion Date: August 10th)

We are to the halfway point in the book and this chapter is all about asking better questions. To excel at asking better questions there are three strategies to practice:

• Be curious
• Ask open, opinion questions
• Be nonjudgmental

Making use of the comment feature at the bottom of this post discuss the following questions.

1. Which of the “false question types” do you find yourself asking most often (93)?
2. Why is it so difficult to ask authentic, open questions?
3. What would happen if you became better at asking better questions during conversations?

Feel free to reply to others comments.

FYI. Names are posted, and the website is visible, so lets focus on building up instead of ranting.