The Six Conversations
Pathways to Connecting in an Age of Isolation and Incivility
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- €8.49
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- €8.49
Publisher Description
It’s time for a conversation revival!
Conversation is getting harder. We’re feeling more isolated. Loneliness is becoming an epidemic. The Six Conversations: Pathways to Connecting Again in an Age of Isolation and Incivility reflects one of the deepest passions of Dr. Heather Holleman’s heart: to connect people in loving community. Professor Holleman often fields questions like:
How can I foster meaningful connection with others?
Why doesn’t anyone ever ask meaningful questions?
If my personal happiness depends upon having warm relationships—like all the research shows—how can I become a better conversationalist and create connection?
Can you relate? Are you longing for loving, meaningful, and joyful conversations? For practical skills to connect with others? Heather invites us to reimagine better conversations. Her work demonstrates how we can develop authentic community by changing our relational mindsets to become more curious, to believe the best about others, to express concern about their lives, and to share our own. Heather shows us how to embrace the Four Mindsets of a Loving Conversation and the Three Fresh Goals for Conversation. Using the latest research, she shares the foundational training necessary for engaging in truly loving conversations. Readers will be equipped with effective questions, self-assessments, and action steps to immediately implement in any situation—both personally and professionally.
If you desire deeper relationships with your spouse, dating partner, children, friends, in-laws, grandchildren, coworkers, clients, students, people in your neighborhood—or all the above—then read this book and grow in the art of The Six Conversations!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This cheerful manual by Holleman (Chosen for Christ), a rhetoric professor at Penn State, provides Christian-inflected advice for having more meaningful conversations. She offers tips and strategies for having more pleasant social exchanges using the "six dimensions of being human": social, emotional, physical, cognitive, volitional, and spiritual. The author contends that each dimension can serve as a prompt to generate thoughtful questions; for example, "Do you have any upcoming plans with friends?" addresses the social dimension, and "What are you learning lately?" the cognitive. Holleman shares personal anecdotes that illustrate her "Three Fresh Goals for Conversations"—"encouragement," "progress," and "marveling"—and recounts chatting with her mentor about their shared awe over God's hand in crafting birdsong and the beauty of the natural world. Identifying conversational pitfalls, the author warns against "advice-giving" because it can come across as if one thinks one knows "what's best for people," as well as against flattery, which can lead one to say things one doesn't mean to please others. Readers will appreciate the easily digestible enumerated lists and bounty of sample questions, even if some come across as a bit strange (e.g., "What's the best sound effect you can make?"). It adds up to an accessible "conversation tool kit" for creating deeper connections.
