“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” – Leo Buscaglia
When actively applied, the following guidelines form a solid foundation from which extraordinary dialogue emerges. Adhering to the guidelines will take courage, boldness, and actively noticing when your judgment, biases, beliefs, stories and interpretations appear.
Engage your head and your heart as you engage.
Activate your intuition.
Being requires self-observation. Stay present to your feelings and attend to big emotions with deep breathing, self-soothing, long pauses.
If you’re participating in a live event and/or posting on line and you notice you are reacting, take a break to calm down. Notice your thoughts as they arise and actively challenge them. Fact or interpretation?
- Demonstrate personal integrity, honesty and sincerity.
- Uphold, “what is said in the room stays in the room”.
- Maintain confidentiality at all times including during breaks.
- Respect others’ perspectives and feelings.
- Be open to learning and self-discovery.
- Allow others to speak fully without interruption.
- Participate fully, and engage in the learning.
- Use appropriate language. This includes suspending language that may judge, criticize or assess another participant’s idea, suggestion and/or perspective.
- Practice being curious about yourself and others. If you’ve worked with/known someone for a while, be open to learning them anew.
- Listen fully, and pause longer than usual.
- Use “I” language and resist the temptation to “you…”.
- Use humour appropriately with an eye on matters of diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Seek to inform vs taking a punitive approach when practicing new language and ways of thinking regarding matters of diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Know and be responsible for yourself. In other words, agree to practice being with the thoughts, feelings and body sensations that conflict drives up in you.
- Consciously adopt and generate a spirit of curiosity, mutual respect, a commitment to learn.
- Generate listening beyond the right/wrong of the situation.
- Have an appetite to cause and engage with the magic of nothingness or unknowing.
What would you add?