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THE
SEVEN
CHALLENGES
A Free
Workbook and Reader
About
Communicating
More Cooperatively
by Dennis Rivers, M.A.
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a structured, intensive exploration of seven essential communication
skills for
a lifetime of better cooperation
in work, family, friendship & community settings
The short URL of this document is www.newconversations.net/workbook/
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Summary and Table of Contents
the Seven Challenges Workbook -- Web Page Edition
¡AHORA EN ESPAÑOL, TAMBIÉN!
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INTRODUCTION:
How this workbook came to be, the Seven Challenges,
and how we benefit from a more cooperative style
of listening & talking
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Communication Skills Challenge One: Listening more carefully and more responsively - acknowledging the feelings and wants that others are expressing - compassionately allowing people to feel whatever they feel (which sets the example for others to hear & accept my feelings, also).
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Communication Skills Challenge Two: Explaining my conversational intent and inviting consent
by using conversational openers such as, "Right now I would like to take a few minutes and ask you about... [subject]." The more important the conversation, the more important it is to know & share the overall goal.
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Communication Skills Challenge Three: Expressing myself more clearly and more completely
- giving my listeners the information they need to understand (mentally reconstruct) my experiences. One good way is to use "the five I-messages": what/how I observe, feel, interpret/evaluate, want, and hope for.
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Communication Skills Challenge Four: Translating my criticisms and complaints into requests
& explaining the positive results of having my request granted -- doing this for both my own complaints and the complaints that others bring to me.
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Communication Skills Challenge Five: Asking questions more "open-endedly" and more creatively.
"How did you like that movie?" is an open-ended question that invites a wide range of answers. "Did you like it?" suggests only "yes" or "no" as answers and does not encourage discussion. (How do you feel about this suggestion?)
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 Communication Skills Challenge Six: Thanking. Expressing more appreciation, gratitude, encouragement and delight. In a world full of problems, look for opportunities to give praise. Both at home & at work, it is the bond of appreciation that makes relationships strong enough to allow for problem-solving.
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 Communication Skills Challenge Seven: Focusing on learning... Making better communication an important part of my everyday life... instead of just enduring difficult conversations, seeing each conversation as an opportunity to grow in skill, awareness and compassion... turning each opponent into a learning and problem-solving partner.
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APPENDIX ONE:
Suggestions for further study:
Great books on interpersonal communication
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APPENDIX TWO:
Suggestion for Starting a Local
Cooperative Communication Skills
Peer Support and Practice Group
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APPENDIX THREE
Options for getting the entire workbook:
download Workbook as a single Adobe Acrobat PDF document file (free)
download Workbook
as a single Word 2000 file (free,
but huge: 4 MB)
(after
downloading, change the filename from sevenchal.dok to sevenchal.doc)
buy printed copy online
(English) (US$10 + postage)
buy
printed copy online (Spanish) (US$8.50 + postage)
And,
a special invitation...
web us/blog us/recommend us -- Spread the word about free teaching and training materials.
You can encourage the development of more cooperative communicating in families, organizations and nations around the world by placing one of the following links to the Seven Challenges Workbook and/or to our library of free resources on your personal, organizational, school, college, university or business web site and/or blog. Copy one of the following links and insert it in the appropriate page on your site. (Thanks and blessings)
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