Do you know how much your relationships would improve if you could get people to understand you better?
Do you wonder how to create personal and professional relationships grounded in mutual respect, compassion, and emotional safety?
Are you ready to break patterns of thinking that lead to arguments or depression?
One approach I’ve found extremely effective in both business and personal is called Nonviolent Communication (NVC or Collaborative Communication). Developed by Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD, NVC liberates you from ancient patterns of power struggle, defensiveness, and suffering, which is why it has been adopted by Fortune 500 companies, governments, school systems, inmate rehabilitation programs, and social change advocates.
We have been educated from birth to compete, judge, demand, and diagnose – to think and communicate in terms of what is “right” and “wrong” with other people. We believe we have to defend ourselves and behave accordingly. Adverbs and adjectives slice and dice and communicating and thinking this way can create misunderstanding, frustration, and even worse, result in anger, depression, and even emotional or physical violence.
NVC is based on the idea that all human beings have the capacity for compassion and only resort to violence or behavior that harms others when they don’t recognize more effective strategies for meeting their needs. Far more than a communication technique, you’ll learn to transform the thinking, language, and moralistic judgments that keep you from the enriching relationships you long for. NVC aims for everyone involved to get what really matters to them without the use of guilt, humiliation, shame, blame, coercion or threats.
Through simple techniques, you can learn how to consciously change your language and thinking to forge better quality relationships with others. NVC aims to find a way for everyone involved to get what matters to them without the use of guilt, humiliation, shame, blame, coercion, or threats. It is useful for resolving conflicts, connecting with others, and living in a way that is conscious, present, and attuned to the genuine, living needs of yourself and others.
You’ll learn to…
- Put your primary focus on connection through empathic listening rather than “being right” or “getting what you want” or “fixing someone.”
- Transform conflict into mutually satisfying outcomes
Defuse anger and frustration peacefully - Move beyond power struggles to cooperation and trust
More connections, less conflict? Read on to find out how.
THE 4 COMPONENTS OF NVC
Nonviolent Communication includes a simple method for clear, empathic communication, consisting of four areas of focus:
1. Observations: State concrete actions you observe in yourself or the other person. A pure observation is without comparison to the past and is what we see or hear that we identify as the stimulus to our reactions, the “trigger.” The observation gives the context for our expression of feelings and needs.
Example: “It’s 2:00 a.m. and I hear your stereo playing,” states an observed fact.
2. Feelings: Identify the feeling that the observation is triggering in you. Feelings are always related to your body, and never involve others. They represent our own emotional experience and physical sensations associated with our needs that have been met or that remain unmet.
Example feeling: “It’s 2:00 a.m. and I hear your stereo playing. (observation). I’m irritated (feeling).”
3. Needs: State the need that is the cause of that feeling. A psychic or basic need is always about oneself, not about another, and is always a basic human quality.
All human beings share key needs for survival: hydration, nourishment, rest, shelter, and connection to name a few. In the context of Nonviolent Communication, needs refer to what is most alive in us: our core values and deepest human longings. The key to identifying, expressing, and connecting with needs is to focus on words that describe shared human experiences rather than words that describe the particular strategies to meet those needs.
Example need: “It’s 2:00 a.m. and I hear your stereo playing. (observation). I’m irritated (feeling) because I need to get some sleep (need).”
The need for sleep is a shared human experience.
4. Requests: Make a concrete request for action to meet the need just identified.
To meet our needs, we make requests to assess how likely we are to get cooperation for particular strategies we have in mind for meeting our needs. Our aim is to identify and express a specific action that we believe will serve this purpose and then check with others involved about their willingness to participate in meeting our needs in this way.
Example request: “It’s 2:00 a.m. and I hear your stereo playing. (observation). I’m irritated (feeling) because I need to get some sleep (need). Please turn the volume down (specific request).”
In business and life, we waste too much precious time and energy because we don’t know how to articulate what is in our hearts and minds safely. We can “say a lot” by truly listening for other people’s feelings and needs and responding to them instead of just the words said. As a community, we urgently need to move past power struggles to cooperation and trust. Using NVC, the improvement to your life and others you care for is immediate. I encourage you to start practicing the principles of NVC today – over and over – until it becomes second nature.
Warmly, Noreen
RESOURCES
WHAT IS: Nonviolent Communication
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L3rBTChHs8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication
https://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Nonviolent-Communication
https://www.wanttoknow.info/inspiration/nonviolent_communication_summary_nvc
