Training Resilience
Growing Mindfulness
Handling Conflict
Speis means ‘spirit’
and connotes joy, aspiration
and courage
Training, Facilitation, and Coaching
Resilience
Mindfulness
Conflict
In an era of transition, it is critical to equip ourselves with skills that allow us to thrive. Resilience, mindfulness, and the ability to skillfully manage conflicts are skills that allow individuals and organizations to not only survive crises but navigate them as opportunities for growth.
Mindfulness, Resilience, and Conflict Management Training allow structured learning of concepts and skills practice over time. Training is offered over an 8-week period, 90 minutes per week, in person or virtually. Introductory half-day or full-day workshops and five-day intensives are also offered. Facilitated training in Resilience and Conflict Management is a structured, but tailored, approach to learning, and incorporate the specific challenges of the client. Facilitated training uses surveys and interviews to hone the content for maximum relevance.
A coaching approach to building resilience, mindfulness, and conflict management skills helps leverage individual learning styles. One-on-one coaching or team coaching is a powerful way to understand and develop these critical life skills.
Training Resilience
Resilience is the capacity to bounce back and even thrive in the face of adversity and difficulty. This training offers a structured and science-based approach to strengthening resilience. It builds on individual strengths, identifies the mental traps that bog down the capacity to cope, and fosters relationship and community skills critical for successful resilience. Based on American Psychological Association (APA) recommendations and University of Pennsylvania’s positive psychology-based Resilience Training Program, it focuses on replacing unconstructive views and thinking with mindsets that propel people forward, and growing the capacity to make better decisions and resolute actions.
Strengthening resilience is first and foremost based in reality, the real-world difficulties that demand to be met. This is no shallow attempt to pretend that whistling in the dark will alone solve problems. Rather, given the way that our human brains are wired, it starts with helping people see that, if anything, in a crisis fear can dominate in ways that alter thinking and paralyze action – or otherwise activate unskillful and unconstructive coping styles. These customary ways of reacting to difficulty are carefully identified and ways to counter them are articulated and practiced. Resilience is a whole-body capacity, so training resilience takes the whole “body” into account, from personal thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, interpersonal dynamics and relationship skill-building, to finding and building community resources.
Resilience Training
- 90 minutes x 8 weeks
- Half-day introduction
- 2-day workshop
- 5-day intensive
Growing Mindfulness
Science has demonstrated the power of mindfulness, from its capacity to boost the immune system to dramatically increasing well-being and psychological functioning. In a structured, 8-week format, this training identifies the core skills of mindfulness including the nature of attention, the pervasiveness of automatic thinking and reflexive reactivity, and the power of letting go of self-judgment. This training consists of learning about the concepts underlying mindfulness, practicing mindfulness skills during the session and throughout the week, using the practice to build on further skills, and a bevy of tools, exercises and video-learning.
Although learning mindfulness is best supported by systematic training in a group setting with a qualified guide or teacher, it is such a valuable skill that it could be argued that you can start anywhere without going wrong. You can view it as learning how to sing, or how to sing better. After all, singing is an inherent ability, just as mindfulness is. Without a guide, you may falter or build habits that are not conducive to sustaining the practice, such as being overly self-critical or missing what exactly you should be doing. The singing equivalent might be drawing from too shallow a breath, so that you are unable to sustain singing for long, or it gets uncomfortable. However, singing effectively or not, you can still enjoy the music and find yourself getting drawn into it. A little singing is better than no singing. A little exposure to and practice of mindfulness is better than none. There is a bevy of articles, tools and instructions available on the internet and elsewhere, including some of the articles I have written.
The quality of the mindful mind
The science of meditation and mindfulness
What are some exercises to get started with mindfulness?
How exactly does mindfulness work to transform me?
Contact me if you would like to discuss Mindfulness Training or Coaching.
Handling Conflict
Conflict is everywhere, in the form of disputes between coworkers, family, friends, neighbors, institutions and agencies. It arises because of differences of interests and positions; and it can be part of an ingrained pattern of dynamics between people, including “bad blood,” or a history of tension and hostilities. But conflict does not automatically have to imply that it is destructive, involve aggression, or best avoided. How you engage in conflict goes a long way to getting satisfactory outcomes, and can be the source of deepening trust and improved relationships.
A 2013 survey of 200 CEOs by Stanford University identified conflict management as the skills CEOs most want to develop. “When the CEO avoids conflict,” wrote the associate editor of Harvard Business Review (August 2013), “it can shut down the whole organization: decisions are not made and problems fester, creating a domino effect of unproductive behaviors… A CEO who can manage and channel conflict…can get to the root of issues, apply rigor to the team’s thinking, and, ultimately drive the best outcomes.”
Like resilience and mindfulness, learning to work constructively with conflict is a lifelong journey, and easier to learn in theory than in practice. Yet understanding why people get into conflict and how to get out of it can go a long way to learning how to manage it collaboratively and avoid entrenchment or escalation.
Handling Conflict is offered as a one- to five- day training and/or facilitation, with presentation of concepts, exercises, role plays and games. Modules of this training include:
- The Dynamics of Conflict and Why They Occur
- Interest-based Negotiation
- Essential Communication Skills in Conflict
- Collaboration Skills for Leaders
Contact me if you would like to discuss Conflict Management Training, Facilitation, or Coaching.
Conflict Management
Training Modules
- The Dynamics of Conflict and Why They Occur
- Interest-based Negotiation
- Essential Communication Skills in Conflict
- Collaboration Skills for Leaders