Liminal States: A COVID-19 Paradox “Every stimulus must reach a certain intensity before any appreciable sensation results. This point is known as the threshold or liminal intensity.” [1] And some of us are just impatient with every boundary, above and below. James Sully. Outlines of Psychology. 1888 I was talking to the wonderful chair and CEO...
Effective Conversations: Demonstrating Empathy Empathy requires you to understand another’s feelings and concerns, flowing from awareness of your own feelings, while interacting with another human being. You can literally feel as they feel. An empathic person can read emotional currents and notice nonverbal cues, such as tone of voice or facial expression and, with sophisticated...
Effective Conversations: Thinking Together Emotionally, you can easily sense where you are ‘at’ with conversation. It is an experience of energy and creativity, of fresh thinking and feelings (as opposed to a rehearsal of former thoughts and conditioned feelings, with no one point of view holding all of the truth). You can taste and feel...
Effective Conversations: Conversation Not Debate By using the right language, we can exchange thoughtful words that accurately represent the intricacies of thought, emotion, mood, and behaviour. Good conversations can give depth and meaning that can lead to connection, creative mood-sharing, and learning ‘together’. Great conversations, at their core, are a search for the truth with...
Avoiding The Ladder Of Inference For great dialogue, the ladder of inference can be your enemy because not only is there no dialogue but, when discussion does occur, it is littered with preconceptions, beliefs, and conclusions. Genuine dialogue calls for the suspension of judgement and avoiding the ladder of inference. “Suspension means that we neither...
Climbing The Ladder Of Inference Have you ever had something like the following experience? You take a much-needed coffee break and walk up to the café bar, where two of your friends are already gathered. They stop talking when you approach. The observable information you have is around their physical location and the fact that...
Some Tips For Great Coaching To be a great coach it would be valuable to: Understand that the expression of coaching is in emotions and feelings, conscious thought, and action Think holistically about the person you are coaching Have a good knowledge of people generally Care about people, their growth and their capability and relationships...
The Coach’s Objective. I’ve spent much the past two weeks in one-on-one coaching sessions. I am always honoured that people willingly share so much. One new client, (whom I’d never met before) about ten minutes into our conversation, said that he was surprised at how much he was revealing to a total stranger. Another, a...
Feedback Matters. If you don’t know how you’re going, then you don’t know how you’re going! It is important to pulse, check and monitor your progress. In fact, this is key to making behavioural change that lasts. For example, without even trying, simply tracking how much exercise you do actually leads to healthier exercise patterns....
Practicing New Behaviour. ‘Having a go’ at a new behaviour is essential and this can be tested and supported by finding circumstances for development that are not too daunting or high-risk. Striving to get better, learning from your experiences, reflecting on what occurred and experimenting further are real experiences. In simple terms: mastery comes with...
