Decades of innovation and progress have changed how we live and interact with those around us. If we are honest, we enjoy all the benefits and conveniences of high-tech, high-speed living.
The current smartphone statistics trajectory from Statista suggests that by the end of 2023, there will be 7.33 billion people with mobile phones. In 2008, the term Nomophobia was coined. It’s a portmanteau of the phrase “no-mobile-phone phobia.” And two-thirds of the global population seems to suffer from this 21st-century phobia.
A busy life has become the norm. The crazy part is that most of the things we do today aren’t bad in and of themselves. But trying to do all of them simultaneously is causing us to miss out on building relationships for a complete schedule, and we have the frazzled nerves to prove it.
Can you Relate?
Perhaps you’ve felt the demands of all those things that seem urgent in life. For example, you want to finish that conversation with your spouse, but those emails won’t answer themselves. Or you may want to spend some quality time with the kids, but those papers on your desk won’t grade themselves. The struggle for meaningful family time is real.
How do we ensure that the time we spend together is quality?
As our facilitators share in Our Community Listens, one of the most powerful dynamics of human interaction is when people feel as though they have been heard. Really heard. Hearing someone does not mean we necessarily have to agree with what has been said. Instead, it is working to understand where people are coming from and then going to a new place together.
In the age of mobile technology, listening has become a lost art. Most would agree that nothing shuts down a conversation faster than glancing at your phone or checking your smartwatch notification. Unfortunately, when doing those things, our body language and eye contact send a deafening message, “I am not engaged.”
The Four Commitments
If you want to be helpful to others and increase your ability to inspire and influence, consider committing to asking yourself these four questions (T.H.E.M.).
Do people have your TIME?
Do people have your HEART?
Do people have your EAR?
Do you have the right MOTIVE?
Get Specific
If you struggle to capture someone’s attention long enough to have a conversation, don’t worry, you aren’t alone! According to Pew Research, 95% of teenagers in the US have access to a smartphone, and half are almost constantly online. In relationships like this, you have to become more intentional than ever before. Intentional with your schedule, environment, and what you bring to the table. If mobile apps are entertaining, you must be entertaining too. If nothing becomes dynamic until it is specific, then begin with clear conversation starters. Below, we’ve compiled a list of conversation starters for you to use, whether for a spouse, a family member, a team member, or a child.
Our Community Listens
Because listening is the most underrated yet fundamental skill for community impact, our first foundational course is Our Community Listens. A three-day course designed to help participants learn how to listen effectively, express themselves clearly, and build better relationships. These skills are essential for success in both personal and professional contexts.
In addition, the communication skills training offered by the Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities can help participants to:
– Improve their ability to listen attentively and understand others to foster better relationships at home and work
– Come to understand their unique communication profile
– Learn about people’s core behavioral tendencies
– Discover how to flex their communication for the comfort of others
– Appreciate the diverse contributions others bring to our lives and leadership
– Discover and experience how listening empowers people to help others, improve relationships, and increase the opportunity for personal and team achievement
– Learn the common misgivings about confrontation and power and will receive a practical method to positively and respectfully confront others to create change
– Express themselves more clearly and effectively
– Resolve conflicts peacefully and productively
– Lead more effectively and inspire others
– Improve Self Awareness
– Understand what motivates their team members
– Connect the principles and practices learned in this course to their life and leadership
– Reflect on how to reset their relational default modes and learn how to leverage the most value out of the Continuous Learning process after the classroom experience ends
Who Can Take Our Community Listens?
The Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities offers courses to anyone who wishes to improve their personal and professional life. We are dedicated to developing a culture of listening, service, and leadership to create Caring Workplaces and Caring Communities. Our organization seeks opportunities for collective impact, allowing compassion to permeate every aspect of the culture to take root and enabling all to flourish. Additionally, becoming an alumnus of Our Community Listens gives you yearly access to over a dozen online growth opportunities at no additional cost.
Join many other organizations that have discovered that listening is the most underrated yet fundamental skill for community impact and have chosen the Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities as their skills training provider.
If you now agree that listening is the most underrated yet fundamental skill for community impact, click here to enroll in Our Community Listens. Need help convincing your leader? Click here to download our Letter to Your Leader document. To learn more, click here.