Term: Summer 2022

Date: June 23rd, 2022

Time: 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Location: University Mall 2104

Instructors: 

Cheri Lemieux Spiegel, PhD

(cspiegel@nvcc.edu)

and

Paul Fitzgerald, PhD
(pfitzgerald@nvcc.edu)

Northern Virginia Community College
Annandale Campus

Presented By: Office of Inclusion & Diversity (INDV)

Description:

Bartleby, the Scrivener, is immortalized in literary history, not for what he did, but for how he stated his refusal: “I would prefer not to,” he so boldly told his employer in reply to a request. What arises in you when you imagine offering a refusal in your own workplace setting? Navigating challenging conversations requires a specific set of compassion-related tools! Whether you’re trying to say “no” to an opportunity, to deliver uncomfortable news to a student, to navigate a misunderstanding, or something else altogether, the framework for compassionate communication can be pushed to its edges when discomfort, fear, uncertainty, and/or anger are alive in us or those with whom we’re communicating. In this workshop, we explore ways to navigate these occasions. Building on what it means to re-see circumstances without judgment, this workshop offers opportunities for participants to practice hearing the needs and feelings of others, while holding boundaries and managing one’s own inclination to react rather than to respond with a caring and present disposition. In doing so, we work to rediscover and renew the joy that brings us to the institution where we are called to serve.