Everything I needed to Know About Seminar I learned at Evergreen
I came back to Evergreen largely because I believe that Evergreen is a place
where people can learn to be effective communicators and problem solvers. As
a student, and in my professional career at Evergreen, I've collected what I think are
good tennants for fostering effective communication. Most of these I learned
from my faculty in the late 80's but some of them have come to me from just
working here (and a couple of other places).
- When talking about your opinions, speak in the first person.
- It is much harder to listen than it is to talk, so work harder at listening
than talking.
- Righteous indignation is not an effective means of convincing anyone of
seeing things your way.
- If you truly cannot understand why a person can possilbly
think or act the way they do, its probably because you don't understand
their situation or their culture.
- If you are questioning someones reasoning and/or motivations don't forget
to actually phrase it as a question. You can never ultimately know why
someone thinks the way they do. Listen to the answers. More often than not,
they will be different
than you anticipated.
- Rhetorical questions are not questions..
- Ultimately all reasoning can be traced back to a leap of faith. They are
this way because I BELIEVE that they are this way. This is as true of scientific
arguments as it is for philosophical ones.
- Generalizations are a dangerous tool. Use them sparingly. Handle them with
the same care that you would handle explosives or sharp objects.
- Conflict is neccessary to solving difficult and complex problems.