“Cooperative Communications” – A Possible Training Plan For Beyond War?
The Beyond War community constantly looks for ways to deepen our understanding and capacity with respect to how to “work together with others in building a world beyond war.”
These words are easier to say than they are to live. One of the reasons this can be so challenging is that we need to find ways of thinking, communicating and sharing our lives that are different from what we learn from our larger society – which is anything but “beyond war” at present.
One resource that may be able to help us in this work is a synthesis of best practices called “cooperative communication” developed by Beyond War member Dennis Rivers. The cooperative communication skill set draws from such traditions as personhood counseling (Carl Rogers), nonviolent communication (Marshall Rosenberg), appreciative inquiry (Case-Western University), and others.
Despite its broad scope, the cooperative communication approach is not just a hodge-podge of ideas cobbled together from eclectic sources. It offers an integrated, organic whole. Dennis has spent decades researching and working with these practices in a variety of settings – prisons, businesses, families, etc.
Moreover, he offers the cooperative communication materials as an “open source” education project. Like open source software, this means the materials are free, we can change any or all of them for our own purposes, and we can offer them under our own name however we choose.
Therefore, I am attaching a 1-page summary and a “Seven Challenges Workbook” for consideration as a possible starting point for our community to develop a cooperative communications training plan.
We can use this forum discussion to begin sharing our ideas as we explore this possibility together. My intent is not to push this particular plan, but to start a conversation about meeting this critical need.
These words are easier to say than they are to live. One of the reasons this can be so challenging is that we need to find ways of thinking, communicating and sharing our lives that are different from what we learn from our larger society – which is anything but “beyond war” at present.
One resource that may be able to help us in this work is a synthesis of best practices called “cooperative communication” developed by Beyond War member Dennis Rivers. The cooperative communication skill set draws from such traditions as personhood counseling (Carl Rogers), nonviolent communication (Marshall Rosenberg), appreciative inquiry (Case-Western University), and others.
Despite its broad scope, the cooperative communication approach is not just a hodge-podge of ideas cobbled together from eclectic sources. It offers an integrated, organic whole. Dennis has spent decades researching and working with these practices in a variety of settings – prisons, businesses, families, etc.
Moreover, he offers the cooperative communication materials as an “open source” education project. Like open source software, this means the materials are free, we can change any or all of them for our own purposes, and we can offer them under our own name however we choose.
Therefore, I am attaching a 1-page summary and a “Seven Challenges Workbook” for consideration as a possible starting point for our community to develop a cooperative communications training plan.
We can use this forum discussion to begin sharing our ideas as we explore this possibility together. My intent is not to push this particular plan, but to start a conversation about meeting this critical need.
Tags: communication
- Attachments:
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sevenchallenges.pdf, 1.7 MB -
summary-sevenchallenges.pdf, 345 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Martin Jones on -
This looks like really good material. The summary sheet is intriguing -- and I've downloaded the workbook to review when I have time. This could maybe be a Study Course in Communication that we could offer Study Series graduates -- or anyone after an Intro DVD -- with some BW examples, eg. -- and perhaps some of the best parts of "US in the World."
Martin
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Permalink Reply by Elaine Hallmark on -
Would Dennis Rivers be willing to conduct a training session with these materials?? It could be an excellent enrichment and beginning of how our teams can start building a "culture of peace" through application of such tools.
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Permalink Reply by Bill Scheurer on -
I'm sure he would be happy to do this! He might also be willing to facilitate something at our Board retreat if we asked him to?
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