Connections That Work - Nonviolent Communication At The Office: The Basics

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is the intention of seeing humanity in the other person. This intention is realized when we speak with honesty, reveal our vulnerability, and come with inner clarity of our values and needs.

However, at work, there can be some challenges that are different from applying NVC at home.

Using my own experience of working for some of the biggest global corporations, as well as integrating Liv Larsson's insights from her book 'Human Connection At Work', I'll give you meaningful and effective ways to apply clarity and compassion without losing sight of your day-to-day priorities. Moreover, I will show you how NVC can greatly improve effective leadership by stripping away what stops human connection.

This is part 1 of a 3-part course curriculum that can be taken separately or in conjunction with parts 2 & 3. For optimized learning & integration, I suggest taking the courses in their intended sequence.

In this Basics Course, we'll address:

1. Introduction or refresher
2. dealing with feelings & Emotions at work
3. Active Listening
4. Power dynamics
5. Giving and receiving feedback

image: Getty (licensed)

Lección 1: Connected Teams Make Companies Thrive

This first session sets the stage for the rest of the course. We'll look at the '4-step' model of Nonviolent Communication. We'll address how validating feelings at the workplace makes the organization into a more robust relationship container (which benefits employees and employers), and we'll address the importance of connecting with the WHY of anything we do.

Lección 2: Dealing With Feelings & Emotions At work

In this session, we'll spend some more time around how to deal with feelings and emotions in the workplace. We'll also explore a way to give it more structure in our meetings by way of a simple ritual called the 'check-in'.

Lección 3: Disagreeing Without Disconnecting

One of the things I appreciate so much about my meditation teacher Michael Taft's way of being, is the utter calmness with which he can disagree with people.

How can we disagree in a fully relaxed connection? That's what this session is about--not taking things personally and insisting on seeing the beauty of the other person's perspective.

Lección 4: Listening

The reason that 'silence is golden' is also the reason why listening is such a rare art to master. This session is the most important session of the entire course, and also of this entire range of courses. If you can hone the skill of listening well, you will have gained a superpower, both in your private life and professionally.

Lección 5: Power Dynamics

How do we deal with people that we perceive as having authority? How can I see the CEO as my equal? These are fundamental questions when we talk about power dynamics, especially in companies, but also in life in general. And so it's a very important topic to unfold when we think about NVC in the workplace.

Lección 6: Giving & Receiving Feedback

In this last session, we're going to take a look at feedback, super important in the work environment. And so it's also very important to be able to give feedback that doesn't disconnect us, that actually can connect us. And therefore, in this session, we're going to discuss exactly that.