Emotional Intelligence /Crossposting Odnet-grpfacl
Melanie Reynolds
Dr. Skube can be reached via the Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com - or you may want to contact our speaker coordinator, Dan Nygard at 206-684-4157 for her phone number.
Melanie Reynolds
Manager, Training Unit
Seattle City Light
City of Seattle
>>> Michael Holdstock <mike.ho...@swipnet.se> 11/21 3:25 AM >>>
Can anyone help me with some material - experiential exercises and/or
experience of developing in other ways- about/for developing awareness of
Emotional Inteligence?
Thanks in advance
Mike
Michael Holdstock
personal and organisational growth support
training, facilitation, counseling and coaching
personal vision - to be working at my own creative
edge by supporting others in their work on theirs
email: mike.ho...@swipnet.se
tel +46 (0) 707 444 525
fax +46 (0) 707 110 679
Edward Ruete
I have just started reading the book, and am still embroiled in the section
about how the brain works. But something in the preface got me thinking.
Goleman made the comment that knowing how emotions work in the brain is a
little like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in quantum physics: that
the act of measurement affects what is being measured. I think he's mixing
up his quantum physics a little, but his point was that if we just know
what's going on, it can help us be smarter about making it work for us.
What struck me as I read that is that we've know what is going on for about
20,000 years. Most of the mythology, folktales, and culture has to do with
making emotions work for us, and is based on vast experience with how the
brain works, even if we didn't have MRIs and CAT scans to tell us what part
of the brain was doing it. But when we became scientific, when "myth"
became a synonym for "wrong," we lost touch with that rich tradition of
knowledge. We had to wait about 400 years for science to get far enough
along in understanding the brain to replace the anecdotal evidence of
20,000 years of human experience.
So I would suggest that you use some old folk stories to help participants
get in touch with emotional intelligence. There are many stories available
in the works of Joseph Campbell, Clarisa Pinkola Estes, Thomas Moore, and
David Whyte to mention a few of my favorites. I will include one here with
some ideas on how it can be used:
This is a teaching poem from the Northwest Native American tradition. This
poem was used to answer the question, "What do I do when I am lost in the
forest?" The cedar forests of the Pacific Northwest are so thick that, 200
yards into the forest, there is nothing to see but green, not even the sky
above. This poem was used to teach children how to react when lost in the
forest, but it applies equally to any of us who are lost. If you are
familiar with the term "emotional hijacking" -- when the amygdala (sp?)
takes over before the prefrontal lobe can put a damper on emotional
response -- you'll recognize the panic that comes when you're lost is an
emotional hijacking, and this poem is an admonition to stop and wait for
the higher brain centers to have a chance to work.
Lost in the Forest
When a child asks, "What do I do when I'm lost in the forest?," an elder
will recite:
Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you are not lost.
Wherever you are is here, and you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
Listen: the forest breathes
It whispers, "I have made this place around you
That, leaving it, you may come back again, saying 'here'."
Are any two trees are the same to raven? Are any two branches are the same
to wren?
If what trees do and branches do is lost on you then you are truly lost.
Stand still.
The forest knows where you are.
You must let it find you.
One way you could use this is graphopoetic analysis. You read the poem,
then hand out copies or show it on a flip chart or overhead slide and read
it again. Then each person selects one line or phrase that speaks to them
and writes a poem based on that line. Their poem may or may not
incorporate the line they chose. Have each person read their poem, when
they are ready (I usually don't go around in a circle on this: some people
really need to wait until they're ready). Then each person picks one line
from their poem which goes on a flip chart. Putting all those lines
together results in a group poem. If you have talked about emotional
hijacking and positioned the teaching poem as teaching the need to guard
against it, then you can debrief the group poem as being about their
thoughts, feelings, or experience around emotional hijacking.
Just some thoughts off the top of my head.
Ned Ruete
nru...@csc.com
check out our new website at:
http://pages.cthome.net/nruete/
mike.ho...@swipnet.se on 11/21/98 06:25:01 AM
Please respond to GRP-...@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU
To: GRP-...@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU
cc: (bcc: Ned Ruete/CSI/CSC)
Subject: Emotional Intelligence /Crossposting Odnet-grpfacl
Kathleen McSweeney
danger is always there for us as facilitators to confuse our work with
therapy, which most of us are not trained for, in settings not designed for
therapeutic work, with participants who have not signed on for such an
intervention. I've been concerned and at times appalled by some professionals'
lack of awareness around this, so was gratified to read your recent message.
We need to remember our contract with the client and our essential role.
Kathleen McSweeney
Gilbert Brenson Lazan
>Thanks to Ned for an important caveat re.emotional work with participants. The
>danger is always there for us as facilitators to confuse our work with
>therapy, which most of us are not trained for, in settings not designed for
>therapeutic work, with participants who have not signed on for such an
>intervention. I've been concerned and at times appalled by some professionals'
>lack of awareness around this,
Having spent the first twenty years of my career as a group and family
psychotherapist, I can also add my "amen" to Ned's sage advise. Eric
Berne's definition of a quack was: "Someone who knows what to do but
doesn't know when NOT to do it". And I suspect that in Latin America the
problem that Kathleen refers to is twice as common...and disasterous.
At the same time I also know that sometimes it is unavoidable that a
participant enter into a critical moment of personal insight during an
otherwise innocuous exercise or that in no way had that intention. As
facilitators, I believe it is also an important competence to be aware of
this and know how to handle it, not therapeutically but by an opportune
remission to a capable professional. I have found that in some cases it
also can be an excellent "trampoline" to group learning; after all, the
same thing can happen in the workplace.
In my not-so-humble opinion (IMNSHO), intentional, unthinking use of
inappropriate exercises that go beyond an agreed-upon contract, is very
poor facilitation. Being prepared for the sometimes unavoidable
consequences of our powerful facilitation tools, is part of being a good
professional.
Gil
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FUNDACION NEO-HUMANISTA - Dr. Gilbert Brenson Lazan
Consultoria y Formacion de Facilitadores
en Procesos de Transformacion Organizacional y Comunitaria
Apartado Aereo 50717 - Santafe de Bogota, Colombia
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