Let’s hear from CELA leader, Dan’l Lewin, as he sets the stage for our deep dive into using openness and transparency to move from conflict to learning.
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Essentials from Dan’l
- A powerful way to move through conflict is to identify the areas where you can agree and find alignment with the other side (e.g., common ground).
- Use openness to stay in the conversation; ask questions that keep people talking. As the conversation continues, focus on increasing the areas of alignment between you.
- Spend a fair amount of time preparing beforehand. To be skillful in moving through conflict, it’s important to be clear in your own mind about what you are trying to do and what success looks like. With that clarity, decide where you need to be firm and where can you be flexible. Use this information to navigate your way to solution.
The CCO program invites you to step into the stance of the Challenger, which has at its root an attitude of openness that lends agility and creativity to how you show up.
Working with openness calls upon Challengers to:
- Bring a deliberate curiosity into what they do;
- Possess a genuine interest in the information, ideas, and manner of reasoning that others bring to the table; and
- Be willing to accept that they might not have all the information or answers, all the time.
Another way of thinking about the CCO is as an invitation to “see and listen differently.” To do so, it is helpful to use a “beginner’s mind” to supply a freshness to what you perceive and to how you perceive it.* As you progress through this Lesson, allow your beginner’s mind to wonder about perspectives you haven’t yet thought of.
*The Zen Buddhist concept of “beginner’s mind” is this: when we are a beginner, our minds are open and receptive to learning; as we develop more expertise, we become more closed, pushing through information that comes our way, looking for the data that validates our beliefs and behaviors (for more on how this happens, review Week 1 and Week 3). Following on this, as experts, we actually need to work harder, to pay more attention, to find the fresh learning that is there for us. Click here to read more about beginner’s mind.