LLL US Western Division Presents
TEAM 2004: Essential Pieces

  
 
Opening page
 
   

Communication Skills

    
   

Sue Scott, OR, reports:

Friday: Department Day: Oh the chairs! CSIs came in to find them every which way around the hotel room, sideways or upside down or facing the window. Some Leaders came in and just sat down wherever they fancied. Some arranged the chair a tad bit before sitting down. Then Pam Young came in and announced loudly "Let's fix these chairs" and she set to work with the others to make the room ours for the day, with chairs and tables arranged just as we wanted. When we come together to explore a shift/change in our thinking then we need to begin with the room we meet in. We can affect our space and culture. Yes, LLL does and will! Each department room had a sticky wall and we used ours to plan the day, influenced greatly by how we had done Open Space the day before. We started with introductions and the appreciative query: What makes you smile when you think back to your training? Then we looked at the big picture of the day. Highlights include:

  1. We agreed to invite/encourage as wide a participation as possible in our new outline that is being developed, including visuals, handouts, bibliography, wording, direction, and resources.
  2. We agreed to look into video conferencing, distance learning, teleconferencing, shared desktops and more for the purpose of designing outlines, conducting CS sessions and trainings and whatever other creative things come to mind.
  3. In cooperation with any interested CSI, we agreed to start an online interactive article on our elist with a posed situation. We intend to try out various aspects of nonviolent communication (NVC) what we learned in leadership weekends about values, asuumptions, beliefs and expectations, appreciative inquiry and the book Difficult Conversations in dealing with this posed situation.
  4. We agreed to invite interested CSIs to be part of a workgroup on incorporating Appreciative Inquiry into the Leader Accreditation process and into CS work. We came home to increased excitement and participation in our elist. I am encouraged that we are thinking more deeply than revising outlines and figuring out ways to give sessions.

Patricia Oglesby, AR/OK, reports:
"TEAM was AWESOME! I was only able to be there for Fri and Sat and boy was that great! Communication Skills Department Day wasn't what I expected. I'm a new CSI, so I went thinking I would come away with lots of practical, hands-on, how-to, type things. It seemed to be more of a brainstorming, goal-setting, the sky-is-the-limit type of discussions. I DID glean some great tips and ideas and I was also inspired by the "big picture" feel of the day.
The best part was that I got to meet so many other CSIs! What wonderful women! What a terrific group! I feel humbled and honored and blessed to be amongst you. There is so much to learn and I think I've just barely scratched the surface.”

Jean Nunnally, TX, writes:

"We CSIs had a great time deciding which "burning issues" we wanted to discuss face-to-face and which we could do on email with the whole department. Ultimately, we decided to defer the work on revising outlines to email so everyone interested could participate. We had a fantastic discussion and practiced some ways to share our beliefs and expectations with another person when our feelings were hurt and/or the relationship was threatened."