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How Language Informs Narrative and Influences Culture
“All subject are a form of discourse,” says Neil Postman. It makes sense. Because you need language and conversation to discuss biology, physics, chemistry, history, geography, astronomy, etc. Dialectic is valuable, whether you're arguing to win, or have a loftier goal: that to understand. Cicero first said that the purpose of education is to…
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What if Conversation is the Transformative Activity?
At the end of the term, every person got a complimentary gelato of their choice. Children, instructors, and practitioners. I was six, in animated conversation with my table mates. Everyone was excited as they remembered the past few weeks. We took turns in mimicking and exaggerating each scene. It was magical. Until my…
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“Crucial Conversations” is a Guide for When the Stakes are High
Mini book read. When we meet a challenge with a response that is equal to it, we're successful. But when the challenge is on a higher level, we cannot meet it with the same response and expect the same results. This type of challenge has changed our lives. Everything moves faster. Technology had made some…
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The Next Social Network
“Love without conversation is impossible.” [Mortimer Adler] Before social networks we had forums and then blogs. In both cases, communities formed around topics and themes, shared interested kept people engaged to help each other. It wasn't the same as in person conversation, but it gave us something we did not have before — scale. …
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Five Sure Ways To Ruin a Conversation
“The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.” [Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton] Martin Luther King, Jr. did not start his speech with a PowerPoint filled with bullet points and statistics. He started with, “I have a dream,” then painted a picture with his story, a story of what could…
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12 Angry Men: the Power of Seek First to Understand
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” [Stephen R. Covey] A boy is put on trial for murder, accused of killing his father with a knife. The jury is composed of twelve men of varying ages, personalities, cultural backgrounds and social standings. They retire to the jury room after the admonishment that the defendant…
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Why Conversation as a Tool
“The trouble is that circumstances must dictate what you do. But too many people are looking at ‘what is’ from a position of ‘what should be’.” [Bruce Lee] This is a quote from The Warrior Within that says it’s time to start acknowledging where we are starting from rather than where we think we should…
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Hitchcock and Truffaut in Conversation on the Art and Craft of Storytelling
In June 1962, French screenwriter, director, producer and actor François Truffaut wrote a letter to Alfred Hitchcock asking whether he might interview him in depth about his life and career. Truffaut proposed they meet to talk for a week of all day interviews. In the letter he stated his reasons: Paris, 2 June 1962 Dear…
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Interaction Between People as the Crucial Motor of Change
Acclaimed philosopher and historian Theodore Zeldin has engaged in a lifetime of philosophical study in search of what a full and flourishing life could be. He says that our relationships with others is both the greatest problem and the greatest opportunity of the twenty-first century, “interactions between people are the crucial motor of change.” Our society…
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Interpreting Truth
“And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are. What is at issue is the conversion of the mind from the twilight of error to the…