New !!

“Communication Skills” Series
(A series of workshops addressing critical skill need areas such as listening,
learning styles and communication, gossip prevention, and handling difficult conversations.)

Workshop 1: COMPASSIONATE LISTENING

 

Thursday, December 4, 2008
9:00 am – 4:30 pm

Location:
The 2100 Building
2100 24th Avenue S.
Seattle, WA 98144

 

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:

Conflict in the workplace spins needless cycles, drains energy and dilutes results. Whether between managers and staff, peers, teams, or entire organizations, it can contribute to poor morale, ineffective partnering and heightened frustration. COMPASSIONATE LISTENING is a practice that reaches deep into the heart of discord or disconnection, teaching people to listen with a different “ear” to those around them.  Its powerful tools help transform the energy of conflict into opportunities for understanding, productive teamwork, healthy relations, and positive action.

This one day experiential workshop on Compassionate Listening teaches powerful, practical tools that can help people change habitual ways of reacting when under stress. Our models are useful for people with or without prior communication skills training – and go beyond the “what to do” to a “way of being” that enhances participants’ capacity to connect with self and others in the heat of conflict.

Compassionate Listening practice provides a roadmap to what sages from all ages and cultures have taught: cultivating the wisdom of the heart is the key to real peace "from the inside out."    The intelligence of the heart is confirmed in recent scientific findings on the heart-brain connection.  Our five core heart-centered practices bring the fruits of Neurocardiology research to bear in everyday interactions.

Through well-designed, field-tested exercises, participants learn to …listen without judgment, respond without anger, and humanize others, – whether they be co-workers or clients.

Workshop Objectives:

• Improve communication and trust in the workplace, as well as at home and in the community
• Enhance organizational effectiveness by transforming the energy of conflict into an opportunity for greater understanding, productive teamwork and positive action
• Build on recent findings in the field of Neurocardiology on the heart-brain connection: Strengthen the influence of the heart through cultivating compassion for ourselves and others, and learn to listen and speak from the heart in challenging situations.
• Develop resiliency and improve health, reducing stress

Participant Outcomes:

Participants will learn and practice the Five Core Practices of Compassionate Listening:

• Cultivating Compassion and a willingness to connect even when not in agreement;
• Developing the Fair Witness -- a capacity to contain triggers and create spaciousness to allow all points of view, even in conflict situations;
• Respecting Self and Others by maintaining boundaries which protect yet include;
• Listening with the Heart to find deeper points of connection beneath layers of defense or differing positions;
• Speaking from the Heart with language that builds bridges and reflects a healing intention.

Implementing Compassionate Listening principles can improve…

• Customer service ratings
• Implementation of organizational and system changes
• Manager performance
• Employee motivation
• Employee satisfaction
• Employee retention
• Employee-to-employee communication
• Teamwork

(This workshop has been designed for all staff)

TRAINER: SUSAN PARTNOW, M.A.- CCC     ANDREA COHEN, M.A., M.S.W.

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WORKSHOP FEE

Coalition Member Organization:
$90 per participant   [for 1-5 staff from member organization]
$80 per participant   [6 or more staff from member organization]

Non-Member Organization:
$120 per participant

Lunch will be on your own.

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Continuing Education Units/Clock Hours
Participants can register for Highline Community College Continuing Education Units (CEUs).
The cost is $10.00 per course. CEU forms are available at the workshop.

Free Clock Hours available at the workshop.

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Cancellation Policy:

The cancellation fee is $25. If you must cancel your registration and have already made payment, you may request a refund minus the $25 fee up to 3 working days prior to the event. After this date, no refunds will be issued and the workshop fee will be charged.

Alternatively, you can make substitutions for attendance.

Please note that "No Shows" will be charged the full workshop fee.

Please inform Anna McCain at 206/870-5908 or amccain@highline.edu if you need to cancel.

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Click here to go to Coalition Member Organizations list

Click here to go directly to the King County Non-Profit Staff Development Coalition Project home page.