Deep Dive: Hosting Difficult Conversations
When we take the lead in genuine health efforts for a population we often need to have difficult conversations. How can leaders host these difficult conversations to improve community partnerships and solutions? What is our role? What skills do we need? How do we prepare? What are key components to being successful?
Through simulation, live case studies, and application, participants at this dialogue will learn specific techniques to prepare for these conversations, to evaluate how much influence/impact a facilitator can have on a conversation, to respond in the moment to potential landmines and other subtexts (the “art” of facilitating) and to take care of our own mental and emotional health post-event.
During this day-long dialog, local experts will explore the intersections of law enforcement and community health by modeling a conversation. Together with these experts, participants will explore the historical context to understand the conversation, its subtexts, and how to use techniques discussed in the morning to enhance the conversation.
Learning Objectives
- Participants will understand the role of an effective facilitator and how much influence/impact he or she can have on the conversation.
- Participants will be able to identify concrete actions for the facilitator to increase the likelihood of a positive and constructive impact.
- Participants will be able to identify specific ways to respond in the moment – the “art” of facilitating – such as identifying subtexts and wording questions to capture the desired information.
- Participants will be able to identify at least two considerations to address mental and emotional health post-event
Trainer: AJ Robinson, Jr., PhD. Dr. Robinson is Chairman and CEO of Symphonic Strategies™ Inc., an organizational and community development firm based in Washington, D.C. Symphonic Strategies™ works with people from all walks of life to help them lead and transform the organizations and communities around them. He holds a PhD in Government from Harvard University and bachelor’s degrees in social psychology and political science from Stanford University. Dr. Robinson has been a consultant to the PBS show Frontline, served as a staff writer on the Encarta Africana Encyclopedia of the Black Diaspora, and was an adjunct professor in the Department of Organizational Sciences at the George Washington University in Washington,
D.C.
Speakers and bios can be found here.
The slide deck for the discussion can be found here.
