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Difficult Conversations by
Based on a successful workshop that has engaged diverse audiences around the country, Difficult Conversations: The Art and Science of Working Together explores a powerful set of research-based principles and strategies that will allow you to engage in meaningful dialogue with anyone. Unleash your natural capacity for compassion, collaboration, and creativity, and help create a nation-and a world-that works for all of us.
Facing the Fracture by
Foster resilience in the face of political polarization ​Unsettled by provocative news, clashing politicians, and social fragmentation, Americans struggle to navigate the challenges of living in a divided country. Facing the Fracture offers a path out of the distress and disempowerment plaguing everyday people. Grounded in psychological research, this book offers readers strategies to foster resilience in the face of political polarization. In this valuable book, Israel moves beyond explaining the problem of polarization to demonstrate how individuals can cope with the political divide, which seems widen with each passing day. Readers will find guidance to reduce toxic input from media, manage polarizing thoughts and feelings, and engage effectively with others. And they will learn that they have the power to improve their personal wellbeing, relationships, community, and country.
Let's Talk about Hard Things by
From the host of the popular WNYC podcast Death, Sex, & Money, Let's Talk About Hard Things is "like a good conversation with a friend" (The New Yorker) where "no topic is off-limits when it comes to creating meaningful connection" (Lori Gottlieb, author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone). Anna Sale wants you to have that conversation. You know the one. The one that you've been avoiding or putting off, maybe for years. The one that you've thought "they'll never understand" or "do I really want to bring that up?" or "it's not going to go well, so why even try?" Sale is the founder and host of WNYC's popular, award-winning podcast Death, Sex, & Money or as the New York Times dubbed her "a therapist at happy hour." She and her guests have direct and thought-provoking conversations, discussing topics that most of us are too squeamish, polite, or nervous to bring up. But Sale argues that we all experience these hard things, and by not talking to one another, we cut ourselves off, leading us to feel isolated and disconnected from people who can help us most. In Let's Talk About Hard Things, Sale uses the best of what she's learned from her podcast to reveal that when we dare to talk about hard things, we learn about ourselves, others, and the world that we make together. Diving into five of the most fraught conversation topics--death, sex, money, family, and identity--she moves between memoir, fascinating snapshots of a variety of Americans opening up about their lives, and expert opinions to show why having tough conversations is important and how to do them in a thoughtful and generous way. She uncovers that listening may be the most important part of a tough conversation, that the end goal should be understanding without the pressure of reconciliation, and that there are some things that words can't fix (and why that's actually okay).
Why We're Polarized by
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 One of Bill Gates's "5 books to read this summer," this New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller shows us that America's political system isn't broken. The truth is scarier: it's working exactly as designed. In this "superbly researched" (The Washington Post) and timely book, journalist Ezra Klein reveals how that system is polarizing us--and how we are polarizing it--with disastrous results. "The American political system--which includes everyone from voters to journalists to the president--is full of rational actors making rational decisions given the incentives they face," writes political analyst Ezra Klein. "We are a collection of functional parts whose efforts combine into a dysfunctional whole." "A thoughtful, clear and persuasive analysis" (The New York Times Book Review), Why We're Polarized reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America's descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump's rise to the Democratic Party's leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics. Over the past fifty years in America, our partisan identities have merged with our racial, religious, geographic, ideological, and cultural identities. These merged identities have attained a weight that is breaking much in our politics and tearing at the bonds that hold this country together. Klein shows how and why American politics polarized around identity in the 20th century, and what that polarization did to the way we see the world and one another. And he traces the feedback loops between polarized political identities and polarized political institutions that are driving our system toward crisis. "Well worth reading" (New York magazine), this is an "eye-opening" (O, The Oprah Magazine) book that will change how you look at politics--and perhaps at yourself.
The Ancient Art of Thinking for Yourself by
How rhetoric--the art of persuasion--can help us navigate an age of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and political acrimony The discipline of rhetoric was the keystone of Western education for over two thousand years. Only recently has its perceived importance faded. In this book, renowned rhetorical scholar Robin Reames argues that, in today's polarized political climate, we should all care deeply about learning rhetoric. Drawing on examples ranging from the destructive ancient Greek demagogue Alcibiades to modern-day conspiracists like Alex Jones, Reames breaks down the major techniques of rhetoric, pulling back the curtain on how politicians, journalists, and "journalists" convince us to believe what we believe--and to talk, vote, and act accordingly. Understanding these techniques helps us avoid being manipulated by authority figures who don't have our best interests at heart. It also grants us rare insight into the values that shape our own beliefs. Learning rhetoric, Reames argues, doesn't teach us what to think but how to think--allowing us to understand our own and others' ideological commitments in a completely new way.     Thoughtful, nuanced, and leavened with dry humor, The Ancient Art of Thinking for Yourself offers an antidote to our polarized, post-truth world. 
Beyond Your Bubble by
As featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, TED Talks, and The Orange County Register, this practical, politically neutral book offers concrete skills for holding meaningful conversations that cut across today's intense political divide, showing readers how to connect to the people in their lives. Author featured on NPR's All Things Considered and NBC's The Today Show with Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager. Winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards for Self-Help This is a great read for all sides of the political spectrum. Inspired by the author's experience leading countless workshops to bridge common ground among members of her community, this book shows how we can reach across the divide and bring Americans together, one conversation at a time. Political polarization is at an all-time high, and the consequences for our personal relationships are significant. Many people have friends and family members with whom they feel they can no longer communicate because of their extreme political views. In this book, psychologist Tania Israel presents her program for helping people have meaningful, constructive conversations with those they disagree with politically. Chapters show readers how to develop and use the scientifically-proven skills that are the foundation of constructive conversation, including strategies for effective listening, managing emotions, and understanding someone else's perspective, as well as finding common ground, avoiding self-righteousness, and telling your own story. Throughout, conversation prompts, practical exercises, case examples, and self-quizzes help readers visualize and practice starting, sustaining, and ending challenging conversations.
Black-And-White Thinking by
A groundbreaking and timely book about how evolutionary biology can explain our black-and-white brains, and a lesson in how we can escape the pitfalls of binary thinking. Several million years ago, natural selection equipped us with binary, black-and-white brains. Though the world was arguably simpler back then, it was in many ways much more dangerous. Not coincidentally, the binary brain was highly adept at detecting risk: the ability to analyze threats and respond to changes in the sensory environment--a drop in temperature, the crack of a branch--was essential to our survival as a species. Since then, the world has evolved--but we, for the most part, haven't. Confronted with a panoply of shades of gray, our brains have a tendency to "force quit:" to sort the things we see, hear, and experience into manageable but simplistic categories. We stereotype, pigeon-hole, and, above all, draw lines where in reality there are none. In our modern, interconnected world, it might seem like we are ill-equipped to deal with the challenges we face--that living with a binary brain is like trying to navigate a teeming city center with a map that shows only highways. In Black-and-White Thinking, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton pulls back the curtains of the mind to reveal a new way of thinking about a problem as old as humanity itself. While our instinct for categorization often leads us astray, encouraging polarization, rigid thinking, and sometimes outright denialism, it is an essential component of the mental machinery we use to make sense of the world. Simply put, unless we perceived our environment as a chessboard, our brains wouldn't be able to play the game. Using the latest advances in psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, Dutton shows how we can optimize our tendency to categorize and fine-tune our minds to avoid the pitfalls of too little, and too much, complexity. He reveals the enduring importance of three "super categories"--fight or flight, us versus them, and right or wrong--and argues that they remain essential to not only convincing others to change their minds but to changing the world for the better. Black-and-White Thinking is a scientifically informed wake-up call for an era of increasing extremism and a thought-provoking, uplifting guide to training our gray matter to see that gray really does matter.
Breaking the Social Media Prism by
A revealing look at how user behavior is powering deep social divisions online--and how we might yet defeat political tribalism on social media In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and renders moderates all but invisible. Breaking the Social Media Prism challenges common myths about echo chambers, foreign misinformation campaigns, and radicalizing algorithms, revealing that the solution to political tribalism lies deep inside ourselves. Drawing on innovative online experiments and in-depth interviews with social media users from across the political spectrum, this book explains why stepping outside of our echo chambers can make us more polarized, not less. Bail takes you inside the minds of online extremists through vivid narratives that trace their lives on the platforms and off--detailing how they dominate public discourse at the expense of the moderate majority. Wherever you stand on the spectrum of user behavior and political opinion, he offers fresh solutions to counter political tribalism from the bottom up and the top down. He introduces new apps and bots to help readers avoid misperceptions and engage in better conversations with the other side. Finally, he explores what the virtual public square might look like if we could hit "reset" and redesign social media from scratch through a first-of-its-kind experiment on a new social media platform built for scientific research. Providing data-driven recommendations for strengthening our social media connections, Breaking the Social Media Prism shows how to combat online polarization without deleting our accounts.
Good Arguments by
"The rare book that has the potential to make you smarter--and everyone around you wiser." --Adam Grant Two-time world champion debater and former coach of the Harvard debate team, Bo Seo tells the inspiring story of his life in competitive debating and reveals the timeless secrets of effective communication and persuasion When Bo Seo was 8 years old, he and his family migrated from Korea to Australia. At the time, he did not speak English, and, unsurprisingly, struggled at school. But, then, in fifth grade, something happened to change his life: he discovered competitive debate. Immediately, he was hooked. It turned out, perhaps counterintuitively, that debating was the perfect activity for someone shy and unsure of himself. It became a way for Bo not only to find his voice, but to excel socially and academically. And he's not the only one. Far from it: presidents, Supreme Court justices, and CEOs are all disproportionally debaters. This is hardly a coincidence. By tracing his own journey from immigrant kid to world champion, Seo shows how the skills of debating--information gathering, truth finding, lucidity, organization, and persuasion--are often the cornerstone of successful careers and happy lives. Drawing insights from its strategies, structure, and history, Seo teaches readers the skills of competitive debate, and in doing so shows how they can improve their communication with friends, family, and colleagues alike. He takes readers on a thrilling intellectual adventure into the eccentric and brilliant subculture of competitive debate, touching on everything from the radical politics of Malcom X to Artificial Intelligence. Seo proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, far from being a source of conflict, good-faith debate can enrich our daily lives. Indeed, these good arguments are essential to a flourishing democracy, and are more important than ever at time when bad faith is all around, and our democracy seems so imperiled.
I'm Right and You're an Idiot by
"Explor[es] the underlying history and psychology of public discourse . . . should be required reading for politicians and public advocates." --Real Change The most pressing problem we face today is not climate change. It is pollution in the public square, where a toxic smog of adversarial rhetoric, propaganda, and polarization stifles discussion and debate, creating resistance to change and thwarting our ability to solve our collective problems. In this second edition of I'm Right and You're an Idiot, James Hoggan grapples with this critical issue, through interviews with outstanding thinkers and drawing on wisdom from highly regarded public figures. Featuring a new, radically revised prologue, afterword, and a new chapter addressing the changes in the public discourse since the 2016 US election, his comprehensive analysis explores: How political will is manipulated How tribalism shuts down open-minded thinking, undermines trust, and helps misinformation thrive Why facts alone fail and how language is manipulated and dissent silenced The importance of dialogue, empathy, and pluralistic narrative reframing arguments to create compelling narratives and spur action. Our species' greatest survival strategy has always been foresight and the ability to leverage intelligence to overcome adversity. For too long now this capacity has been threatened by the sorry state of public discourse. Focusing on proven techniques to foster more powerful and effective communication, I'm Right and You're an Idiot will appeal to readers looking for deep insights and practical advice in these troubling times. "This is a must-read for anyone tired of the bullying, the propagandizing, the screaming, and the bullsh*t." --Dr. Samantha Nutt, author of Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aid
I Never Thought of It That Way by
PORCHLIGHT BOOKS JUNE 2022 NONFICTION BESTSELLER "Assigned reading for fractured families aspiring to a harmonious Thanksgiving dinner." -New York Times "Anyone who sincerely wants to bridge the gaps in understanding will appreciate this book." -Manhattan Book Review Learn how to bring curiosity and courage to even the most difficult conversations across America's polarized political divide with these actionable tools for navigating challenging disagreements. Journalist M nica Guzman is the loving liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted-twice-for Donald Trump. When the country could no longer see straight across the political divide, M nica set out to find what was blinding us and discovered the most eye-opening tool we're notusing- our own built-in curiosity. Partisanship is up, trust is down, and our social media feeds make us sure we're right and everyone else is ignorant (or worse). But avoiding one another is hurting our relationships and our society. In this timely, personal guide, M nica, the chief storyteller for the national cross-partisan depolarization organization Braver Angels, takes you to the realfront lines of a crisis that threatens to grind America to a halt-broken conversations among confounded people. She shows you how to overcome the fear and certainty that surround us to finally do what only seems impossible- understand and even learnfrom people in your life whose whole worldview is different from or even opposed to yours. Drawing from cross-partisan conversations she's had, organized, or witnessed everywhere from the echo chambers on social media to the wheat fields in Oregon to raw, unfiltered fights with her own family on election night, M nica shows how you can put your natural sense of wonder to work for you immediately, finding the answers you need by talking with people-rather than about them-and asking the questions you want, curiously. In these pages, you'll learn- How to ask what you really want to know (even if you're afraid to) How to grow smarter from even the most tense interactions, online or off How to cross boundaries and find common ground-with anyone Whether you're left, right, center, or not a fan of labels- If you're ready to fight back against the confusion, heartbreak, and madness of our dangerously divided times-in your own life, at least-M nica's got the tools and fresh, surprising insights to prove that seeing where people are coming from isn't just possible. It's easier than you think.
Learning to Disagree by
Are you discouraged by our divided, angry culture, where even listening to a different perspective sometimes feels impossible? If so, you're not alone, and it doesn't have to be this way. Learning to Disagree reveals the surprising path to learning how to disagree in ways that build new bridges with our neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones--and help us find better ways to live joyfully in a complex society. In a tense cultural climate, is it possible to disagree productively and respectfully without compromising our convictions? Spanning a range of challenging issues--including critical race theory, sexual assault, campus protests, and clashes over religious freedom--highly regarded thought leader and law professor John Inazu helps us engage honestly and empathetically with people whose viewpoints we find strange, wrong, or even dangerous. As a constitutional scholar, legal expert, and former litigator, John has spent his career learning how to disagree well with other people. In Learning to Disagree, John shares memorable stories and draws on the practices that legal training imparts--seeing the complexity in every issue and inhabiting the mindset of an opposing point of view--to help us handle daily encounters and lifelong relationships with those who see life very differently than we do. This groundbreaking, poignant, and highly practical book equips us to: Understand what holds us back from healthy disagreement Learn specific, start-today strategies for dialoguing clearly and authentically Move from stuck, broken disagreements to mature, healthy disagreements Cultivate empathy as a core skill for our personal lives and our whole society If you are feeling exhausted from the tattered state of dialogue in your social media feed, around the country, and in daily conversations, you're not alone. Discover a more connected life while still maintaining the strength of your convictions through this unique, often-humorous, thought-provoking, and ultimately life-changing exploration of the best way to disagree.
Our Common Bonds by
A compelling exploration of concrete strategies to reduce partisan animosity by building on what Democrats and Republicans have in common. One of the defining features of twenty-first-century American politics is the rise of affective polarization: Americans increasingly not only disagree with those from the other party but distrust and dislike them as well. This has toxic downstream consequences for both politics and social relationships. Is there any solution? Our Common Bonds shows that--although there is no silver bullet that will eradicate partisan animosity--there are concrete interventions that can reduce it. Matthew Levendusky argues that partisan animosity stems in part from partisans' misperceptions of one another. Democrats and Republicans think they have nothing in common, but this is not true. Drawing on survey and experimental evidence, the book shows that it is possible to help partisans reframe the lens through which they evaluate the out-party by priming commonalities--specifically, shared identities outside of politics, cross-party friendships, and common issue positions and values identified through civil cross-party dialogue. Doing so lessons partisan animosity, and it can even reduce ideological polarization. The book discusses what these findings mean for real-world efforts to bridge the partisan divide.  
The Righteous Mind by
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The #1 bestselling author of The Anxious Generation and acclaimed social psychologist challenges conventional thinking about morality, politics, and religion in a way that speaks to conservatives and liberals alike--a "landmark contribution to humanity's understanding of itself" (The New York Times Book Review). Drawing on his twenty-five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, Jonathan Haidt shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings. He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns. In this subtle yet accessible book, Haidt gives you the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the curse of our eternal divisions and conflicts. If you're ready to trade in anger for understanding, read The Righteous Mind.
Say What You Mean by
Find your voice, speak your truth, listen deeply-a guide to having more meaningful and mindful conversations through nonviolent communication We spend so much of our lives talking to each other, but how much are we simply running on automatic-relying on old habits and hoping for the best? Are we able to truly hear others and speak our mind in a clear and kind way,without needing to get defensive or go on the attack?In this groundbreaking synthesis of mindfulness, somatics, and Nonviolent Communication, Oren Jay Sofer offers simple yet powerful practices to develop healthy, effective, and satisfying ways of communicating. The techniques in Say What You Meanwill help you to- . Feel confident during conversation .Stay focused on what really matters in an interaction .Listen for the authentic concerns behind what others say .Reduce anxiety before and during difficult conversations .Find nourishment in day-to-day interactions "Unconscious patterns of communication create separation not only in our personal lives, they also perpetuate patterns of misunderstanding and violence that pervade our world. With clarity and great insight, Oren Jay Sofer offers teachings and practices that train us to speak and listen with presence, courage, and an open heart." -Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptanceand True Refuge
So You Want to Talk about Race by
In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a revelatory examination of race in America Protests against racial injustice and white supremacy have galvanized millions around the world. The stakes for transformative conversations about race could not be higher. Still, the task ahead seems daunting, and it's hard to know where to start. How do you tell your boss her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law hang up on you when you had questions about police reform? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend? In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the model minority myth in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race, and about how racism infects every aspect of American life. "Simply put: Ijeoma Oluo is a necessary voice and intellectual for these times, and any time, truth be told." ―Phoebe Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of You Can't Touch My Hair
Speaking of Race by
It's easy to say that racism is wrong. But it's surprisingly hard to agree on what it is. Does a tired stereotype in your favorite movie make it racist? Does watching it anyway mean you're racist? Even among like-minded friends, such discussions can quickly escalate to hurt feelings all around--and when they do, we lose valuable opportunities to fight racism. Patricia Roberts-Miller is a scholar of rhetoric--the art of understanding misunderstandings. In Speaking of Race, she explains why the subject is a "third rail" and how we can do better: We can acknowledge that, in a racist society, racism is not the sole provenance of "bad people." We can focus on the harm it causes rather than the intent of offenders. And, when someone illuminates our own racist blind spots, we can take it not as a criticism, but as a kindness--and an opportunity to learn and to become less racist ourselves.
Supercommunicators by
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of The Power of Habit, a fascinating exploration of what makes conversations work--and how we can all learn to be supercommunicators at work and in life "A winning combination of stories, studies, and guidance that might well transform the worst communicators you know into some of the best."--Adam Grant, author of Think Again and Hidden Potential Come inside a jury room as one juror leads a starkly divided room to consensus. Join a young CIA officer as he recruits a reluctant foreign agent. And sit with an accomplished surgeon as he tries, and fails, to convince yet another cancer patient to opt for the less risky course of treatment. In Supercommunicators, Charles Duhigg blends deep research and his trademark storytelling skills to show how we can all learn to identify and leverage the hidden layers that lurk beneath every conversation. Communication is a superpower and the best communicators understand that whenever we speak, we're actually participating in one of three conversations: practical (What's this really about?), emotional (How do we feel?), and social (Who are we?). If you don't know what kind of conversation you're having, you're unlikely to connect. Supercommunicators know the importance of recognizing--and then matching--each kind of conversation, and how to hear the complex emotions, subtle negotiations, and deeply held beliefs that color so much of what we say and how we listen. Our experiences, our values, our emotional lives--and how we see ourselves, and others--shape every discussion, from who will pick up the kids to how we want to be treated at work. In this book, you will learn why some people are able to make themselves heard, and to hear others, so clearly. With his storytelling that takes us from the writers' room of The Big Bang Theory to the couches of leading marriage counselors, Duhigg shows readers how to recognize these three conversations--and teaches us the tips and skills we need to navigate them more successfully. In the end, he delivers a simple but powerful lesson: With the right tools, we can connect with anyone.
Think Again by
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential, Originals, and Give and Take examines the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your opinions and open other people's minds, which can position you for excellence at work and wisdom in life Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn. In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt. We listen to opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. We see disagreement as a threat to our egos, rather than an opportunity to learn. We surround ourselves with people who agree with our conclusions, when we should be gravitating toward those who challenge our thought process. The result is that our beliefs get brittle long before our bones. We think too much like preachers defending our sacred beliefs, prosecutors proving the other side wrong, and politicians campaigning for approval--and too little like scientists searching for truth. Intelligence is no cure, and it can even be a curse: being good at thinking can make us worse at rethinking. The brighter we are, the blinder to our own limitations we can become. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant is an expert on opening other people's minds--and our own. As Wharton's top-rated professor and the bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take, he makes it one of his guiding principles to argue like he's right but listen like he's wrong. With bold ideas and rigorous evidence, he investigates how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, bring nuance to charged conversations, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners. You'll learn how an international debate champion wins arguments, a Black musician persuades white supremacists to abandon hate, a vaccine whisperer convinces concerned parents to immunize their children, and Adam has coaxed Yankees fans to root for the Red Sox. Think Again reveals that we don't have to believe everything we think or internalize everything we feel. It's an invitation to let go of views that are no longer serving us well and prize mental flexibility over foolish consistency. If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdom.
The Way Out by
The partisan divide in the United States has widened to a chasm. Legislators vote along party lines and rarely cross the aisle. Political polarization is personal, too--and it is making us miserable. Surveys show that Americans have become more fearful and hateful of supporters of the opposing political party and imagine that they hold much more extreme views than they actually do. We have cordoned ourselves off: we prefer to date and marry those with similar opinions and are less willing to spend time with people on the other side. How can we loosen the grip of this toxic polarization and start working on our most pressing problems? The Way Out offers an escape from this morass. The social psychologist Peter T. Coleman explores how conflict resolution and complexity science provide guidance for dealing with seemingly intractable political differences. Deploying the concept of attractors in dynamical systems, he explains why we are stuck in this rut as well as the unexpected ways that deeply rooted oppositions can and do change. Coleman meticulously details principles and practices for navigating and healing the difficult divides in our homes, workplaces, and communities, blending compelling personal accounts from his years of working on entrenched conflicts with lessons from leading-edge research. The Way Out is a vital and timely guide to breaking free from the cycle of mutual contempt in order to better our lives, relationships, and country.
Words Matter by
History and current affairs show that words matter - and change - because they are woven into our social and political lives. Words are weapons wielded by the powerful; they are also powerful tools for social resistance and for reimagining and reconfiguring social relations. Illustrated with topical examples, from racial slurs and sexual insults to preferred gender pronouns, from ethnic/racial group labels to presidential tweets, this book examines the social contexts which imbue words with potency. Exploring the role of language in three broad categories - establishing social identities, navigating social landscapes, and debating social and linguistic change - Sally McConnell-Ginet invites readers to examine critically their own ideas about language and its complicated connections to social conflict and transformation. Concrete and timely examples vividly illustrate the feedback loop between words and the world, shedding light on how and why words can matter.
Your Heart Was Made for This by
A practical roadmap to cultivating the heart's capacity to face and transform our greatest challenges-like the climate crisis, oppression, anxiety, and burnout-from the bestselling author of Say What You Mean. Meditation teacher Oren Jay Sofer shares a pragmatic guide toliving a life of meaning and purposein a time of great social, environmental, and spiritual upheaval. Through touching stories, insightful reflections, and concrete instructions, Sofer offers powerful tools to strengthen our hearts and nourish the qualities that can transform our world. Each chapter guides you to cultivate a quality essential to personal and social transformation like mindfulness, resolve, wonder, and empathy. You'll learn ways to- Find more choice and freedom in life Strengthen focus, sustain energy, and accomplish goals Identify burnout and take steps to renew yourself Imbue your daily activities with clarity and vitality Respond more effectively to collective challenges
Breaking the Silence Habit by
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, employees and leaders are struggling with how to respond to the pervasiveness of sexual harassment within their organizations and industries. Compliance-only approaches fall short because they teach employees the rules but don't provide them with the skills to follow them. Sarah Beaulieu provides a new skills-based approach to addressing sexual harassment prevention and response in the workplace, including using underdeveloped skills like empathy, situational awareness, boundary setting, and intervention. Beaulieu outlines a five-part framework for having conversations about sexual harassment- Know the Facts; Feel Uncomfortable; Get Curious, Not Furious; See the Whole Picture; and Embrace Practical Questions. By embracing these conversations, we can break the cycle of avoidance and silence that leaves our lives and our workplaces feeling volatile and unsafe. This book will help you contribute toward fostering a safer environment for your colleagues so that everyone can bring their full talent and contributions to the workplace.
Breaking Through Gridlock by
Think about the last time you tried to talk with someone who didn't already agree with you about issues that matter most. How well did it go? These conversations are vital, but too often get stuck. They become contentious or we avoid them because we fear they might. What if, in these difficult conversations, we could stay true to ourselves while enriching relationships and creating powerful pathways forward? What if our divergent values provided healthy fuel for dialogue and innovation instead of gridlock and polarization? Jason Jay and Gabriel Grant invite us into a spirit of serious play, laughing at ourselves while moving from self-reflection to action. Using enlightening exercises and rich examples, Breaking through Gridlock helps us become aware of the role we unwittingly play in getting conversations stuck. It empowers us to share what really matters - with anyone, anywhere - so that together we can create positive change in our families, organizations, communities, and society.
Conversations Worth Having, Second Edition by
Now in a second edition, this classic book shows how to make conversations generative and productive rather than critical and destructive so people, organizations, and communities flourish. We know that conversations influence us, but we rarely stop to think about how much impact they have on our well-being and ability to thrive. This book is the first to show how Appreciative Inquiry-a widely used change method that focuses on identifying what's working and building on it rather than just trying to fix what's broken-can help us communicate more effectively and flourish in all areas of our lives. By focusing on what we want to happen instead of what we want to avoid and asking questions to deepen understanding and increase possibilities, we expand creativity, improve productivity, and unleash potential at work and home. Jackie Stavros and Cheri Torres use real-life examples to illustrate how these two practices and the principles that underlie them foster connection, innovation, and success. This edition has been revised throughout with new examples; updates on the latest supporting research in neuroscience, positive science, and positive psychology; and a discussion guide. It also features a new chapter on what the authors call tuning in- cultivating awareness of how our physical and mental state affect our perceptions, emotions, and thoughts as we engage in conversation. This book teaches you how to use the practices and principles of Appreciative Inquiry to strengthen relationships, build effective teams, and generate possibilities for a future that works for everyone.
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Third Edition by
This New York Times bestseller and business classic has been fully updated for a world where skilled communication is more important than ever. The book that revolutionized business communications has been updated for today's communication challenges. Crucial Conversations provides powerful skills to ensure every conversation―especially difficult ones―leads to the results you want. Written in an engaging and witty style, it teaches readers how to be persuasive rather than abrasive, how to get back to productive dialogue when others blow up or clam up, and it offers powerful skills for mastering high-stakes conversations, regardless of the topic or person. This new edition addresses issues that have arisen in recent years. You'll learn how to: Respond when someone initiates a crucial conversation with you Identify and address the lag time between identifying a problem and discussing it Communicate more effectively across digital mediums When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a Crucial Conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation poorly and suffer the consequences; or apply the lessons and strategies of Crucial Conversations and improve relationships and results. Whether they take place at work or at home, with your coworkers or your spouse, Crucial Conversations have a profound impact on your career, your happiness, and your future. With the skills you learn in this book, you'll never have to worry about the outcome of a Crucial Conversation again.
Difficult Discussions: Issues and Ideas for Engaging College Students in Peace and Justice Topics by
Drawing from many disciplinary areas, this edited volume shares tools, techniques and ideas for engaging college students in difficult discussions. From sexual violence to race to poverty and more, chapters in the book present useful strategies as well as limitations in creating safe classroom spaces. Ideal for peace and justice educators, this volume also includes the voices of students in every chapter.
Good Talk by
Leadership is the art of designing transformative conversations. Real change is needed, now, more than ever. This change can't happen through force, edict or persuasion. The future will be built through conversation - and Good Talk will show you how. Good Talk is a step-by-step framework to effect change in your personal and professional conversations. With dozens of tools and interactive components, Good Talk is a handbook to navigate the conversations that matter. What's Inside: How to see the structure of conversations. Life is built one messy, slippery conversation at a time. While conversations feel hard to hold onto, ebbing and flowing, back and forth and into eventual silence, they each have a structure. The first step to changing your conversations is seeing what's going on between the silence. What is your Conversation Operating System? Who gets invited to the conversation? Who speaks first? Where does the conversation take place? What happens if someone messes up? In every conversation, there are elements that guide the exchange. The nine elements of the Conversation OS Canvas can help you to shift the direction of your conversations. What is your conversational range? Conversations are more than dialogue. From the conversations in your head to the complex conversation that is your organization, you need to design conversations that matter across a huge range of sizes. Learn to master conversations from the boardroom and beyond. How to design conversations that matter. The world needs fresh, creative conversations that are alive, and that work for all the people involved. How can you design conversations that matter? Leadership means designing the conditions for these conversations to happen. Learn the patterns and principles to make change possible.
How to Listen and How to Be Heard by
Named a Best Nonfiction Book of 2020 by Cosmopolitan! For anyone who has ever felt their voice isn't heard at work. This is a guide on how to empower yourself and others to communicate with people who think, act, and experience things differently than you do, and do so with more confidence, candor, and authenticity. Too often, people avoid difficult conversations; but these discussions often need to happen to bring people together so we can all succeed. There's no denying that our workplaces are more diverse than ever. Age, race, gender--there are so many different perspectives and experiences being brought to the table. And the best employees and leaders know that harnessing the power of these differences will build stronger teams, ideas, and organizations. But how do we do this? If we all think, feel, and act so differently, how do we get anything done? The first step is recognizing that these differences exist. And that they're here to stay. We need to respect and embrace our varied viewpoints, and then we can start to communicate across (not against) them. How to Listen and How to be Heard shows you how to bridge the conversation gap and use your unique voice to start powerful conversations. This book is about learning how to communicate with, through, and alongside what makes us different. It's about open dialogue and practical tools that get everyone on the same page--or at least in the same room. It's not about quick fixes or the absence of conflict; it's about working toward authentic communication in the workplace--for managers, employees, and colleagues from all fields. It's about remembering that we're all here to work together.
I Respectfully Disagree by
Start building bridges instead of barriers! This essential guide offers a simple 5-part framework that will help you have honest and enlightening conversations despite deep and fundamental disagreements. Divisions are on the rise around the world, and 2024 may well be a peak year. We're losing the ability to disagree without dehumanizing. There is a deep need for this practical and accessible guide to having challenging conversations in any situation, from the workplace to the classroom to the dinner table. It's not about saying the right words at the right time but something vastly deeper. In this book, you'll discover the 5 pillars of respectfully disagreeing- Challenge your perspective Be the student Cultivate your curiosity Seek the gray Agree to respect But this is not a weighty tome. Each chapter features a cartoon, and Justin Jones-Fosu tackles this serious subject with a playful and compassionate tone. For example, he writes "I have become more and more intentional in my desire to respectfully disagree with others (except those who think putting ketchup on eggs is wrong...there is no hope for respect there)." With a wide range of examples and exercises throughout, this is a timely and reader-friendly handbook to disagreeing with someone's ideology while passionately pursuing their humanity.
Nonviolent Communication: a Language of Life by
5,000,000 COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE * TRANSLATED IN MORE THAN 35 LANGUAGES What is Violent Communication? If "violent" means acting in ways that result in hurt or harm, then much of how we communicate--judging others, bullying, having racial bias, blaming, finger pointing, discriminating, speaking without listening, criticizing others or ourselves, name-calling, reacting when angry, using political rhetoric, being defensive or judging who's "good/bad" or what's "right/wrong" with people--could indeed be called "violent communication." What is Nonviolent Communication? Nonviolent Communication is the integration of four things: * Consciousness: a set of principles that support living a life of compassion, collaboration, courage, and authenticity * Language: understanding how words contribute to connection or distance * Communication: knowing how to ask for what we want, how to hear others even in disagreement, and how to move toward solutions that work for all * Means of influence: sharing "power with others" rather than using "power over others" Nonviolent Communication serves our desire to do three things: * Increase our ability to live with choice, meaning, and connection * Connect empathically with self and others to have more satisfying relationships * Sharing of resources so everyone is able to benefit
Talking Taboo by
When politics, sex, race, religion, and other polarizing subjects come up in conversation among co-workers, what happens next? SHRM Chief Knowledge Officer Alexander Alonso, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, explains why some topics are taboo while others are not then brings them to life with real-world conversations on taboo topics, such as politics, race, religion, sex and gender. Based on the extensive findings of the "2020 SHRM Survey of Politics and Polarizing Discussions in the Workplace", Alonso looks into the future of Talking Taboo, delivers proven assessment and guidance tools, and wraps up by showing how to make taboo topics work in your workplace.
Turn Enemies into Allies by
"An essential addition to the conflict resolution toolkit." --Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Triggers In today's workplace, managers, leaders, and HR professionals often believe they don't have the time to help employees navigate conflict. More often than not, however, it takes more time not to address conflict than to constructively intervene. But before you can successfully guide others in managing disagreements, you must be able to manage yourself--your mindset, presence, and behaviors. Turn Enemies into Allies offers a way of working with clashing employees that is deliberate and systematic--one that draws on the author's expertise in conflict and communication skill-building and a decades-long practice in mind-body principles from the martial art aikido. Following the author's step-by-step guide, you will: Acquire the skill and confidence to coach conflicting employees back to a professional, effective working relationship, while simultaneously changing their lives for the better. Restore control and peace of mind to the workplace. Increase your leadership presence.
Use Your Difference to Make a Difference by
Become more culturally competent in an increasingly diverse world Recent years have seen dramatic changes to several institutions worldwide. Our increasingly interconnected, digitized, and globalized world presents immense opportunities and unique challenges. Modern businesses and schools interact with individuals and organizations from a diverse range of cultural and national backgrounds--increasing the likelihood for miscommunication, errors in strategy, and unintended consequences in the process. This has also spilled into our daily lives and the way we consume information today. Understanding how to navigate these and other pitfalls requires adaptability, nuanced cross-cultural communication, and effective conflict resolution. Use Your Difference to Make a Difference provides readers with a skills-based, actionable plan that transforms differences into agents of inclusiveness, connection, and mutual understanding. This innovative and timely guide illustrates how to leverage differences to move beyond unconscious biases, manage a culturally-diverse workplace, create an environment for more tolerant schooling environments, more trusted media, communicate across borders, find and retain diverse talent, and bridge the gap between working locally and expanding globally. Expert guidance on a comprehensive range of topics--teamwork, leadership styles, information sharing, delegation, supervision, giving and receiving feedback, coaching and motivation, recruiting, managing suppliers and customers, and more--helps you manage the essential aspects of international relationships and cultural awareness. This valuable resource contains the indispensable knowledge required to: Develop self-awareness needed to be a cross-cultural communicator Develop content, messaging techniques, marketing plans, and business strategies that translate across cultural borders Help your employees to better understand and collaborate with clients and colleagues from different backgrounds Help teachers build safe environments for students to be themselves Strengthen cross-cultural competencies in yourself, your team, and your entire organization Understand the cultural, economic, and political factors surrounding our world Use Your Difference to Make a Difference is a must-have resource for any educator, parent, leader, manager, or team member of an organization that interacts with co-workers and customers from diverse cultural backgrounds.
We Can't Talk about That at Work! Second Edition by
In developing the skills necessary to engage in Bold, Inclusive Conversations around polarizing topics, we can acknowledge that these subjects are complex, that there are no simple answers, and that it takes time and practice to learn how to do it well. Politics, religion, race-we can't talk about topics like these at work, right? But in fact, these conversations are happening all the time, either in real life or virtually. And if they aren't handled effectively, they can become more polarizing and divisive, impacting productivity, engagement, retention, teamwork, and even employees' sense of safety in the workplace. In this second edition of We Can't Talk about That at Work!, best-selling author Mary-Frances Winters and new coauthor Mareisha N. Reese of The Winters Group, Inc., provide fresh examples, updated research, and compelling insights. Featuring a new chapter on how two organizations have actualized the model for Bold, Inclusive Conversations as well as a discussion guide and updated glossary, this modern classic offers step-by-step guidance for conducting structured conversations around polarizing topics. Leaders and organizations can address sensitive subjects head on in a way that brings people together instead of driving them apart.