Digify x Mindful Communication

This week saw the last in my four workshop with the 4th Digify Cohort. This inspiring group of young people have been selected by youth-led creative network Livity to take part in their 'talent-spotting and hot-housing digital skills incubator,' Digify. Supported as part of Sadiq Khan’s Digital Talent Programme, after two months of paid in-house training, they will all shortly begin a six month placement at Sky.

I have run four half-day workshops with the group as part of their 2 month training programme. We have covered mindful communication techniques such as listening, non-judgement, curiosity, creativity, non-violent communication and values. 

Using LEGO Serious Play to explore the qualities of a good listener

What are our values and why are they important to us

Making models to represent mind, body and spirit: what can we learn when we check in with how we think and feel with our whole body

How can we communicate with a language of feelings and needs

Reflecting on our life journeys and our hopes for the future

This workshop series aims to give participants a creative and relaxed space to connect with themselves and others. Each workshop utilises playful techniques such as LEGO Serious Play, making and drawing, combined with mindfulness, non-violent communication and dialogue practices. The experience provides a sense of calm and opportunity for reflection, allowing participants to ground themselves in a better understanding of their values, feelings and sense of self. In turn it provides participants with skills that can help improve their communication with others and contribute to their overall sense of well-being.

“For me it has been such a pleasure to work with a group of people who were so open, warm and caring. They fully participated with honesty and curiosity in every activity I asked of them. Together we created an energy and connection that I found inspiring and which will motivate me to continue with my own work, purpose and passions. I wish them all the very best on the next steps of their journeys and I am excited to see what change they can bring in making their unique marks on the world.”

Create Seven - Discovering New Leadership at the Centre for Alternative Technology

I had the great privilege of being one of the 'pioneers' of Create Seven's pilot on the first module of their New Leadership programme.

We spent three days together at The Centre For Alternative Technology in Snowdonia, Wales, exploring how mindfulness, connection to nature and creative dialogue can contribute to the creation and enabling of leaders for a more sustainable future.

Create Seven's mission to create leaders for a more sustainable future is based on the seven stages of psychological growth and the qualities needed to support the transition from conventional leadership to post-conventional.

The Discovering New Leadership module introduces participants to the three key areas that can help support leaders to the post-conventional stages of New Leadership

• Mindfulness - witnessing thoughts, emotions and behaviour to gain agility and experiencing a state of consciousness associated with the higher stages of development
• Connection with wilderness and nature - helping us to drop our own ego and learn from nature
• Creative Dialogue - connecting with other people and to think together to co-create the future

Over the course of the three days I was reminded of the power of mindfulness, nature and dialogue to give us space to reflect, connect with and better understand ourselves, others and the world around us. Just as Mother Nature creates space for all living things to thrive, so too can leaders. We can accept that we live in complex times and that no one person has the answer. By mindful listening and the new thinking generated by dialogue we can co-create more sustainable solutions and enable responsive and responsible leaders from all levels and across all sectors.

The next Discovering New Leadership module will run from the 22nd-24th April, if you would like further information or to register your interest please visit the Create Seven website. 

Dialogue & New Narratives of Leadership

• What does leadership mean to you?
• Is leadership a dirty word?
• What kind of leadership do we need to create a more sustainable future for all?

These are all questions posed by the newly formed CIC, Create Seven. Founded by Terry Sexton, Jill Chapman and Gary King, it seeks to develop and enable leaders to co-create a more environmentally, economically and psychologically sustainable society.

After joining a meeting of Create Seven members it became clear that in order to create new leaders we need a new narrative of leadership, and an opportunity to share meaning on how we already are or can become leaders in our own lives. 

I collaborated with Create Seven to co-host a dialogue on new narratives of leadership. For those new to dialogue we explored some of the principles; listening, non-judgement, creativity and values, after which we were in dialogue together in the afternoon.

The day generated some rich thinking, understanding and connections, summarised by Terry in his blog post and shared in the Create Seven podcast.

Dialogue & the UK Values Alliance

Last year I joined the UK Values Alliance and was welcomed into a community of inspiring people working in a variety of ways to embed values thinking and action in schools, organisations and society.

I began thinking more deeply about values; how we form them and how they influence our feelings, actions and beliefs during my masters research. During this time I designed my first workshop using dialogue and creativity to encourage participants to reflect and consider their personal and shared values.

Having since led many workshops that have included space for reflection on values, I have witnessed the energy and connection that this creates within individuals and groups.

On joining the UK Values Alliance I was given the opportunity to bring dialogue to the members and explore further the meaning and thinking of values. After a taster session in one of our quarterly meetings we have developed a series of four dialogues for 2018, open to anyone with an interest in values.

Our first dialogue held last month explored: Values and the self

‘We need to address and explore the underlying beliefs, assumptions and motivating values involved in our problems and challenges.’

In the first dialogue we explored and shared meaning around personal values: what they are, where they come from, how we action them, what can challenge them and what meaning they bring to our lives.

It generated some interesting thinking and areas for further exploration. Some notable takeaways for me were

• the space between imposing our values on others and personal boundaries

• how we can connect energetically with people when we are truly listening to understand, not respond

• whether if we have a sense of personal safety in and of ourselves we are able to take risks in being open and vulnerable with others and offer an invitation to connect at a deeper level, at a place that we can accept each other and our common humanity

• whether value based behaviour is a choice and what can compromise that

• what are the small things that we can do to live our values, starting from smiling at people in public places and asking those who serve us daily, 'how are you?'

The second dialogue will explore: Values and others

‘Dialogue allows us to see things differently by looking through a different lens’

In the second dialogue we will explore values from the perspective of others, what happens when our values conflict and how we relate to each other from a place of values and a value-based language.

If you would like to join us for any of the upcoming values dialogues please register here.