Conversation Reimagined

We all anxiously await returning to society – to life - post-pandemic lockdown. Key word is anxiously. Some are bursting to go play, interact, smile, have fun, and dare I suggest ... hug?! While the others are entrenched in deep anxiousness, trepidation, and fear. I worry ... will nasty reactions to social distancing continue post-lockdown? Will we continue to see extreme reactions? How will we respond? And how might we come to understand these extreme differences? On this week's episode, Dr. Andrea converses with behavioral neuroscientist, Dr. Stephen Porges, who is the creator of the Polyvagal Theory and is an expert on how the brain and body respond to threats of safety, whether in society, the workplace, at home, or conversation. Listen in as Dr. Porges discusses how our nervous system is simultaneously being onslaught by the incompatible demands of avoiding others and connecting with them, and that the resources of human contact we intuitively use to calm, may now signal threat.

What company isn't thirsting as if parched in desert conditions, for real leaders? Leaders already trained in team building, who already know how to lead and manage teams ... who understand relationship management ... have managed career development in others ... carried out transparent decision making and have strong statistical analysis and documentation skills. They exist! The men and woman who've served in the U.S. military! Thank you for serving!

Unfortunately, conversation problems also exist. Veterans and civilian colleagues often don't know how to speak to the other. Today Dr. Andrea reimagines conversation with veterans with her guest, Michael Hofrath, an expert in understanding the Veteran population, their unique challenges resulting from trauma, and together they present ideas for having better conversations to have better relationships with Veterans, and bring them to thrive in our corporate and organizational workplaces.

All companies seek ways to encourage and support their employees to deliver peak performance. We often borrow methods, analogies, and terminology from the world of sport and equate it into our businesses. This week, Dr. Andrea talks with an expert in this area, Keith Hatter, founder of U.K. and Australia-based, PlanetK2. Together they will explore the likes of conversations that drive to an outcome, conversations as tools and weapons, conversations with individuals that bring them to deliver peak performance, and the conversations with teams that we aren't having enough of, in order to achieve desired performance.

Dr. Andrea reimagines impossible conversations with guests: Peter Boghossian & James Lindsay. You know those conversations that are emotionally charged, seem completely one-sided, or have an extreme ideological bent? Dr. Andrea reimagines them and others with the aid of Dr. Peter Boghossian and Dr. James Lindsay, who've just written what may be the best how-to book, How to have impossible conversations: A very practical guide. Among the tips shared through their extreme research and contexts of multiple disciplines and difficult environments, they'll get to what's really going on in conversation and how to navigate it effectively.

The statistics on those who have experienced trauma are sobering! For reimagining conversation this means we must understand that every person we encounter may have experienced serious trauma. We don't need to question people's experiences; instead we must assume they may have this history, understand what it may mean, and act and speak accordingly. Today Dr. Andrea reimagines trauma through conversation with guest, Dr. Ronald Ruden, creator of the Havening technique, which uses the sensory input of touch to eliminate the consequences resulting from stressful or traumatic events.

This week, Dr. Andrea challenges that employee engagement is not a thing. In the 30 years we've been measuring engagement, the number of employees who are engaged is still strongly overshadowed by those who are not. Perhaps we've been focusing on the wrong areas, asking the wrong questions and setting the wrong goals? Just like our incorrect primary focus has been on financials, when it is through our employees that we hit our financial targets. Tune in to find out what employees need to truly be engaged.

Change-Uncertainty-Comfort Zone: Opens us up or closes us down. Which will you accept?
This week, Dr. Andrea implores you to stop trying to change and become more of who you are. She presents the positives and challenges of 'uncertainty', 'change' and our 'comfort zone', and depending on how you look at these concepts and even their semantics will open us up or close us down. Tune in to hear the neuroscience of why gradual incremental alterations in behavior go a lot farther than change in helping us sustainably become more of who we are or for learning.

This holiday season, give to yourself - and others - the gift of better conversations to have better relationships. Explore how to navigate those critical, judgmental, and difficult exchanges sometimes experienced at family gatherings or compounded with year-end pressures, into better conversations ... and reimagine those conversations into better relationships. Join Dr. Andrea as she shares ways to have an enjoyable holiday season and end the year on a high note.

This week, Dr. Andrea speaks with guest Richard C. Schwartz, founding developer of Internal Family Systems therapy, which views people as being whole, underneath their collection of "Parts". The coordinating 'Self' embodies the qualities of confidence, openness, and compassion, and acts as a center around which the various "Parts" constellate. Reimagine how to maintain communication to repair the inevitable rifts that occur between you and the significant people in your life.



This holiday season, give yourself and others, the gift of better conversations to have better relationships. Reimagine those tense, awkward, sometimes demeaning exchanges experienced at family gatherings into better conversations ... and reimagine that those conversations can indeed make for better relationships.

This week, Dr. Andrea reimagines conversations through music with guest Martha Reeves. Martha is the lead singer of the Motown girl group, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and she has created conversation and connection with audiences around the world for 60 years. Martha is going to bring us into the reality of reimagining conversation through music, that spans the emotions, with audiences and individuals.