Relationship Skills for Community Building
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How to Get Started
To start practicing more collaborative, less competitive, more equitable, less hierarchical ways of relating to others, I recommend …
- Nonviolent Communication (NVC)
- NVC is a simple conflict resolution process—reasonably quick and easy to comprehend, challenging to put into practice. You can buy Marshall Rosenberg’s book on NVC from the publisher and/or download from them a free, one-page PDF summarizing the method’s four steps.
- Find online and in-person workshops (some free) from certified NVC trainers on the Center for NVC site.
- I highly recommend Heart in Communication’s free 2-hour workshop and (sliding fee scale) 8-session Foundation course.
- Consent-based and/or Consensus-based Decision-making
- Sociocracy For All provides a wealth of information, including explanation of their consent-based decision-making process, and training courses for all levels from newbies to professionals. A couple of basic courses are free and more advanced courses are modestly priced.
- Circle Forward has some simple video resources. Their free PDF mini-book explains how their work implementing sociocracy led to tweaks in their approach, particularly in recognition that often, some of those impacted by decisions are not present at decision-making meetings.
- On Conflict and Consensus by C. T. Butler and Amy Rothstein is available for free from the Anarchist Library.
- Guidance from Indigenous and Other Ethnic Minority Teachers
- Think Indigenous: Native American Spirituality for a Modern World by Doug Good Feather
- Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
- Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World by Tyson Yunkaporta
- Navajo Courts and Navajo Common Law: A Tradition of Tribal Self-Governance by Raymond D. Austin
- Gatherings for Enjoyment
- Hosting fun get-togethers, whether or not folks are gathered to do any kind of work, is also a worthwhile community-building skill. The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker offers guidance and inspiration on making gatherings of all kinds more meaningful, and therefore more deeply enjoyable.