Pause for Breath

Amanda Ridings

Description

This book is for leaders, coaches and practitioners who are intrigued by their contribution to, and impact on, conversations, and who are committed to cultivating an authentic presence and voice.The book explores: the influence of internal dialogue on your interactions with others and your effectiveness in your organisation; how to increase your versatility in challenging or delicate conversations and to develop capacity for doing this in 'bad weather' (adverse conditions); and how to germinate systemic change, one leadership conversation at a time.Pause for Breath gained a Silver Nautilus Award in 2012, in the category of Conscious Business and Leadership. Nautilus aim to recognise exceptional literary contributions to fields such as spiritual growth, responsible leadership and positive social change.

Sujets

• Self-help

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 08 janvier 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781838597917
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

‘Amanda gives us a wonderful blend of personal experience and insight while encouraging curiosity about the habits that show up in conversations. This innovative book offers a unique blend of practices using physical, emotional and spiritual components to shift unpleasant interactions into skilful communication. A great tool for leaders and coaches!’
Wendy Palmer, Founder of Leadership Embodiment,
and author of The Practice of Freedom and The Intuitive Body

‘Social work students must learn to have deep, meaningful, and often difficult, conversations with service users, colleagues, and other professionals. On graduating they quickly find themselves in leadership roles, responsible for supporting the development of others. This insightful book provides knowledge and skills fundamental for such professional activities - I recommended it whole-heartedly.’
Professor Timothy B. Kelly, Chair of Social Work,
University of Dundee, and co-author of Groupwork

‘Whenever there comes along an important book on communication like this one, everyone declares, ‘So-and-so needs to read this book!’ And of all the so-and-so’s in the world, one of them must surely be you.’
Thomas Crum, author of The Magic of Conflic t,
Journey to Center , and Three Deep Breaths

‘Amanda has adapted key features of the dialogue work to develop her own unique coaching practice. The curious blend of T’ai Chi, dialogue and penetrating reflective awareness she propounds in her book is practical, sensitive, effective and worthy of careful consideration by anyone working in the field of coaching and leadership development.’
Peter Garrett, Founder of Dialogue Associates and Prison Dialogue

‘In this gem of a book, Amanda brilliantly marries ancient and contemporary wisdom to give a detailed anatomy of what goes on in our conversations. This is no mere dissection of key conversational elements; we are skilfully led to inquire deeply into our own dialogic processes – and to improve them. An array of practices and resources draws us into engaging fully with the material in the book. Read it.’
Edna Murdoch, Director, Coaching Supervision Academy Ltd
Based in Scotland, Amanda Ridings is an executive coach, coach supervisor and T’ai Chi practitioner. In both her one-to-one work and in small groups of co-learners, she fosters the embodiment of dialogue practices. She also hosts leadership retreats, enabling those caught up in relentless activity to pause for breath and clarify their leadership purpose.

In all she does, Amanda’s intent is to create spaces in which people can make contact, gently and lucidly, with their deeper wisdom so that they can draw on it in mindful service to their life and work. To learn more about Amanda’s work and experiences, and to further explore the practices of mindfulness and dialogue, see her blog at www.originate.org.uk

When not working, writing, or practising T’ai Chi, she finds perspective and renewal by walking in the Scottish hills and mountains. She also loves to dance.



Copyright © 2020 Amanda Ridings

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

First published in 2011 by:
Live It Publishing
27 Old Gloucester Road
London, United Kingdom.
WC1N 3AX
www.liveitpublishing.com

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.


Matador
9 Priory Business Park,
Wistow Road, Kibworth Beauchamp,
Leicestershire. LE8 0RX
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador
Twitter: @matadorbooks


ISBN 978 1838597 917

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.



Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

Dedicated to…
Kay, Lorna, Louise and Susan –
my first dialogue practice development group.
Without your trust my dialogue journey may have stalled.


Sifu Ian Cameron
and
Five Winds School of T’ai Chi Chuan
From whom I truly learned the nature and spirit of practice.


Paldron
Inspiration, aspiration.


‘Foster and polish
The warrior spirit
While serving the world;
Illuminate the path
According to your inner light.’
Morihei Ueshiba
Contents
List of practices
Preface
Part One
Preparation and beginning
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 The journey on offer in this book
Chapter 3 Setting the scene for the practice of mindfulness
Chapter 4 Setting the scene for dialogue – advocacy and inquiry
Chapter 5 Why become aware of our conversational habits?
Chapter 6 Pause for breath

Part Two
Mind and conversation
Chapter 7 Introduction
Chapter 8 First person inquiry with kindness and fascination
Chapter 9 A simple frame for conversational exchanges
Chapter 10 Taking a look inside the black box
Chapter 11 A structured framework for the black box
Chapter 12 Internal dialogue – why mind and conversation matters
Chapter 13 External dialogue – why mind and conversation matters
Chapter 14 Pause for breath

Part Three
Body and conversation
Chapter 15 Introduction
Chapter 16 Handling difference
Chapter 17 Difference and our physiology – fight, flight and freeze
Chapter 18 Embodied mindfulness – centre
Chapter 19 Skilful advocacy, inquiry and pause
Chapter 20 Internal conflict
Chapter 21 Why body and conversation matters
Chapter 22 Pause for breath

Part Four
Spirit and conversation
Chapter 23 Introduction
Chapter 24 Spirit as individual essence
Chapter 25 Spirit as collective energy
Chapter 26 Spirit in the face of challenging conversations
Chapter 27 Cultivating spirit as practice/discipline
Chapter 28 Pause for breath

Part Five
Versatility in conversations
Chapter 29 Introduction
Chapter 30 Kantor’s four players and linked frameworks
Chapter 31 Moves, direction and authentic voicing
Chapter 32 Opposes, integrity and respecting
Chapter 33 Follows, service and listening
Chapter 34 Bystands, perspective and suspending judgement
Chapter 35 Silences, mindful presence and pausing for breath – a speculation
Chapter 36 Pause for breath

Part Six
Towards dialogue
Chapter 37 Introduction
Chapter 38 Preparing for important leadership conversations
Chapter 39 Leading others into a different kind of conversation
Chapter 40 Arriving, beginning, connecting
Chapter 41 Sharing responsibility for cultivating a container
Chapter 42 What now? Building your practice
Chapter 43 Last touch

Acknowledgements
References
List of practices




Practice 1 – awareness in conversation
Practice 2 – awareness of learning process
Practice 3 – a first practice in mindfulness
Practice 4 – awareness of advocacy and inquiry
Practice 5 – awareness of energy fields in conversation
Practice 6 – pause for breath
Practice 7 – awareness of thinking
Practice 8 – reflecting with kindness and fascination
Practice 9 – fieldwork to explore intent and impact
Practice 10 – awareness of preferences and filters for incoming information
Practice 11 – awareness of assumptions and underlying paradigms, beliefs and values
Practice 12 – left hand column activity
Practice 13 – fieldwork with a wicked issue
Practice 14 – pause for breath
Practice 15 – fieldwork on observing physiology
Practice 16 – attending to the language of difference
Practice 17 – attending to the physiology of difference
Practice 18 – developing a centring routine and cultivating a centring habit
Practice 19 – attending to your energy and physicality in conversation
Practice 20 – raising awareness of your internal dialogue
Practice 21 – reflecting on the influence of fight/flight/freeze
Practice 22 – pause for breath
Practice 23 – noticing individual and collective spirit
Practice 24 – cultivating individual spirit
Practice 25 – cultivating collective spirit
Practice 26 – encountering complexity
Practice 27 – attending to, and nourishing your spirit, based on an approach by Tom Crum
Practice 28 – pause for breath
Practice 29 – authentic voice, based on a practice from Wendy Palmer
Practice 30 – cultivating dialogue practices
Practice 31 – moves, direction and authentic voicing
Practice 32 – opposes, integrity and respecting
Practice 33 – follows, service and listening
Practice 34 – bystands, perspective and suspending judgement
Practice 35 – silences, mindful presence and pausing for breath
Practice 36 – pause for breath
Practice 37 – awareness of attitude to learning and practice
Practice 38 – fieldwork on the impact of setting on conversations
Practice 39 – first touch in leading a conversation
Practice 40 – the impact of check-in
Practice 41 – contracting
Practice 42 – taking stock
Practice 43 – pause for breath
Preface
‘In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.’ Shunryu Suzuki