Session 8: April 6

Saying what needs to be said while maintaining good relationship

Creating the conditions for co-creativity, part two: SHOWING UP AS AN EQUAL AND ENGAGING IN honest communication

It’s easy to go along to get along, but it’s not healthy for a group to maintain an appearance of collaboration while harmful behavior or power-relationships goes unaddressed and continues to undermine real progress.Our habitual tendency is to enact the hierarchical structures of society through informal, invisible and unspoken actions and agreements. Through theatre methods we explore what it feels like to give power up or take power over and to stand in conflict as an equal. In this class we will explore two models of communication: control and collaboration. We’ll experientially explore our default conflict styles and dig a little deeper into Marshall Rosenberg’s frame of Nonviolent Communication to help us shift conversations from opposing positions to mutually understood needs.

Lecture and activities

Lecture: From communication as control to communication as an act of collaboration
Activity: Relating as an act of power – giving power up, taking power over, being equal
Activity & lecture: Exploring differnt conflict styles
Lecture and activities: Understanding the philosophy and four steps of NVC

Key concepts

Kraybill’s model of conflict styles
Patsy Rodenberg’s three circles
The skills and frames of nonviolent communication: observations, feelings, needs, request
Assumptions, inferences, positions and interests

Required materials

Selected PDF’s on Nonviolent Communication

Homework

Practice listening and speaking with the NVC frame

Optional materials

Roger Swartz et al, The skilled facilitator andThe skilled facilitator’s field book
(Amazon links)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED if you were intrigued by nonviolent communication: video of a three-hour workshop with Marshall Rosenberg

8: Conditions for creativity, part 2: communication