Skills Development & Courageous Conversations

Skills Development

Introduction to Skills Development

• Skills are abilities to use knowledge effectively.

• Skills can be learned and improved with practice.

• Transferable skills (e.g., communication, problem-solving, empathy) are relevant in all aspects of life.

The Four C's

• Critical Thinking: In-depth problem-solving.

• Communication: Sharing ideas and listening to others.

• Creativity: Innovative approaches and thinking outside the box.

• Collaboration: Working with others towards a common goal.

Rate Yourself on the Four C's

• Assess your proficiency in critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration.

Courageous Conversations

Engaging with Diverse Perspectives

• Discussing sensitive topics requires considering different viewpoints.

• Be open to challenging your own opinions and changing perspectives.

• Listen actively and remain calm during discussions.

Creating Safe Spaces

• Establish guidelines for respectful and productive conversations.

• Ensure everyone feels safe to express their views.

• Maintain confidentiality to encourage open dialogue.

Emotional Flooding

• Acknowledge when you are feeling emotionally overwhelmed.

• Soothe yourself through breathing or taking a break.

• Reflect on triggers and take time to gather your thoughts.

Strategies for Courageous Conversations

Right to Equality

• Understand constitutional rights to equality.

• Avoid discrimination and hate speech.

Engage in Active Listening

• Develop active listening skills to understand context and meaning.

SBLR Strategy (Speaker, Listener)

• Speaker shares ideas without interruption.

• Listener practices active listening.

Tools to Respond to Strong Emotions

Tool 1: Reiterate - Contemplate - Respire - Communicate

• Restate, think, breathe, and speak with empathy.

Tool 2: Journaling

• Process emotions through writing and reflection.

Vulnerability and Communication

• It can be uncomfortable to step out of your comfort zone, but the more you do so, the better you will become at communicating with people who are different from you and who may hold different perspectives.

• Vulnerability is needed to communicate about polarizing topics.

Perspective Taking and Cognitive Dissonance

• Perspective taking: the ability to look beyond your own point of view to consider how someone else may think or feel about something.

• Cognitive dissonance: mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information.

  • People relieve this by rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding new information; persuading themselves that no conflict exists; reconciling the differences; or resorting to defensive means to preserve stability.

Being Okay with Disagreeing

• Important to have investigated other perspectives so that your perspectives are well informed.

• Reality is that we are all different and will therefore not always agree with each other.

• Disagreements can contribute to building deeper connections if managed with respect and care.

• How to handle disagreements effectively:

  • Seek to understand. Listen and do not interrupt. Take responsibility for your actions and feelings.

  • Be aware of your triggers. Seek out similarities. Use positive language.

Removing Self-Serving Bias

• Self-serving bias: a person's tendency to attribute positive events to their own character but attribute negative events to external factors.

• Intellectual humility: 'recognising that one's beliefs and opinions might be incorrect'.

• Developing intellectual humility allows engaging in meaningful conversations by respecting different opinions and being open to changing your own.

Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking involves challenging your thinking to form opinions that are backed up with research and information, having taken different perspectives into account.

• The objective of critical thinking and engaging openly in challenging conversations is not necessarily to change your mind or your opinion; it is to ensure that your opinion is robust and well informed.

The Risk of the Echo Chamber Effect

• The echo chamber effect results in an information bubble around a user, where that person is only exposed to articles (information inside the bubble) that support their previously-held beliefs.

Social Media: A Reliable Source of Information?

• Is it important to consider its credibility when you read information, particularly on social media

  • Who wrote the information and does anyone serve to gain from the information?

  • Has it been well researched and does it consider multiple Perspectives?

Cross-Cultural Communication

• Need to communicate with different cultures effectively, both locally and globally.

• Important that we develop the skills to understand, respect and work with others regardless of differences in race, culture, language, age, gender, sexual orientation, political or religious beliefs, etc.

• Having these cross-cultural communication skills facilitates inclusivity, greater productivity and successful relationships.