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The Peace Alliance hosts monthly conference calls intended to help with communication challenges you may experience in your work with the Department of Peace Campaign. We focus on using methods of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and are grateful to have Miki Kashtan, from Bay Area Nonviolent Communication, volunteer her time to facilitate these calls.
Next Call: 2010
DETAILS:
These 75-minute calls are typically held on the last Thursday of the month.
However, please check dates each month to confirm there has been no
change (such as during Holiday Season).
Time: 6:00 p.m. pacific; 9:00 p.m. eastern.
Call in number: (712) 432-1601 Access code: 470821#.
Call in and you will then be prompted to enter the code. There are no fees for this call other than your normal long distance rates. (Please note: These calls are recorded for publication on our website.)
The call will ask you to announce yourself. PLEASE IGNORE THIS REQUEST if you are joining the call after start time, as it might well interrupt a conversation in progress.
Upcoming Calls:
All calls are postponed until the New Year.
Download and Listen to Previous calls
Right click the file link and choose "Save As" to download to
your computer.
Nonviolent Communication is one of the most powerful tools we know for truly being the change we are calling for as we advocate on behalf of legislation that reveals a culture of peace. It is an unparalleled resource for communicating with:
- Members of Congress who are not yet enthusiastic about the legislation, or are caught in the habit of partisan, adversarial politics, or are afraid to lose constituency if they support the legislation
- Congressional staff members who doubt the efficacy of peacebuilding or who are similarly stuck in nonworking communication patterns
- Local Department of Peace Campaign group members with whom you’re striving to work in partnership
- Members of the public who don’t understand the initiative and may be hostile toward it
- “Angry Liberals” who struggle to peacefully communicate their passion
- Friends and family who question your work for the Department of Peace
- Anyone who wants to expand their capacity to connect, understand and help bring forth a more peaceful world
- Anyone with whom you interact anywhere about just about anything
Below are some of the areas generally discussed, which may be prevalent in your work. We also welcome any other specific challenges you are facing in your work in the areas of connection and communication:
- How can you enhance your relationships with each other so that you have tools to meet with compassion and care and resilience your differences of opinion about how to act to achieve your goals; the irritations which happen when someone does something you don’t like; the disappointments and confusion which so often accompany decision-making; etc.
- How can you reach across the divides between you and the representatives you are trying to influence, and maintain and deepen connection even when you are faced with an aide you don’t trust is really hearing you.
- How can you create a compassionate “conversation” within yourself when your own actions are not in line with the values of peace and love that inform your work?
The skills we will generally focus on will be the following:
- How can we listen empathically to another person, even when we deeply disagree with them, and hear the underlying experience beneath the position or action or belief we disagree with? The concrete skills we will focus on are guessing what might be going on for the other person underneath the words they are choosing, to see what matters to them that they would like us to really hear and understand.
- How can we express what is true for us, what we believe and want, in a way that takes ownership of the experience as ours without requiring the other person to agree or disagree with us? The concrete skills we will focus on are expressing what we feel, what’s really important to us, and what we really want back from the person we are speaking with.
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How to be able to choose clearly which of the above we are doing, based on what’s more likely to contribute to connection, which would then further everyone’s goals?
- How to distinguish between what’s happening and our stories and interpretations about what it means and who and what the people are who are doing or saying what we are reacting to?
If you have no prior experience with NVC, you may choose to purchase and read Marshall Rosenberg’s book: Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, or go to www.baynvc.org and look for the (much briefer) introductory materials which are posted there. There is also a great new .pdf at: http://www.baynvc.org/reference.php Also, Miki published an article on her work with the DOP campaign
in Tikkun Magazine. You can find it on the Peace Alliance website here:
[click here]
Each time we hope to work with a few individuals on real live issues. To support flow and predictability, it helps us to know ahead of time. If you know you have an issue you want to discuss, send it to us by email for possible inclusion in the next call (we will contact you if we want to use your issue on the call, so you will know ahead of time):
- Who do you have trouble responding to with compassion? What’s the situation? (Might be issues dealing with your congressional offices).
- Who do you want to learn how to express yourself to with more clarity and authenticity? What’s the situation?
- Do you have anyone you struggle with that you believe both of you would be willing to receive support during the call? Please contact us immediately, so we can talk before the call.
About Miki Kashtan:
Miki Kashtan, certified NVC trainer, is co-founder of BayNVC. Miki conducts organizational trainings, consults with private and public sector organizations, leads practice groups, and teaches NVC workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the country. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from University of California at Berkeley.
Miki is inspired by the contribution that NVC can make to social change movements and values sharing these skills with leaders and activists. She also particularly enjoys working with and coaching people interested in learning to teach NVC.
You can contact Miki by
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
for email. Put Miki Kashtan in the subject line. www.baynvc.org.
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