Please join us for a special introduction, followed by a gifted workshop the following week, with Kern Beare, founder of the Difficult Conversations Project, on how to hold difficult conversations.  Focusing on the question, “Who do we need to be to have the conversations we need to have?”, Kern’s workshop explores a powerful set of principles:

• Prioritize the relationship over being right.
• See beyond your story.
• Transform resistance into response.

Taken together, these principles allow us to have constructive and creative conversations with anyone.

Kern's initiative was born in the wake of the 2016 presidential election to help heal our national divide. Following a one-month, cross-country “conversation road trip” he took with his son to better understand the state of our national psyche, Kern created a free workshop called “Difficult Conversations: The art and science of working together.” He’s been traveling the country leading the workshop for diverse groups since the summer of 2017, and recently turned the workshop into a book of the same title.

Kern will be leading a two-part series for our Awakin Calls Community:

• an initial 90-minute overview of his method, in Q&A with Janessa Gans Wilder, Aryae Coopersmith, and the audience, on October 14, starting at 11 am PDT; and
• a gifted 4-hour virtual workshop, to be held starting at 9 am PDT on October 21 (continuing through 1 pm PDT), with a small group who sign up during the October 14 session.  Depending on demand, subsequent workshop dates may also be added.

In these challenging and polarized times, please join us in hearing from Kern about the art of difficult conversations!