Rediscovering the Art of Constructive Dialogue | Dr. Mylien Duong

How can we more effectively navigate conversations with people who have different values, and beliefs than we do?

Neighbors, community members, co-workers, and family members who care deeply about the same issues, but who have widely different views about them. 

What are the conditions that would be needed in order to have productive conversations? 

What are the intentions, skills and mindsets we need to cultivate? 

Over the next few weeks these are the complex yet practical questions we will explore with Courageous Life guests new and old. 

You'll be exposed to leaders at the forefront of researching, facilitating, and sharing their hard earned wisdom, 

About how to have constructive dialogues, find win-win solutions to our hardest problems, and ultimately build bridges across difference. 

As we move into election season here in the US, these conversations are particularly timely,

But the skills and insights contained within each conversation are also timeless.

Today we’ll begin this powerful mini-series by re-releasing a past episode with Dr. Mylien Duong.

Mylien is Senior Director of Research at The Constructive Dialogue Institute, where they define Constructive dialogue as a form of conversation in which people who have different values, beliefs, and perspectives seek to build new ways to understand and interact with each other, even as they sustain commitments to their own principles and perspectives. 

Mylien helps to build out evidence-based content for having constructive dialogues, and oversees measuring the efficacy and effectiveness of the programming.  So far programming offered by the Institute: 

• Has impacted over 50K learners 
• Is being leveraged by 900+ Institutions 
• Shows that 86% of learners improved communication across difference
• And, 95% of educators recommend their programming

Their work has been featured in Time Magazine, Forbes, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Oprah Magazine, Psychology Today and more

In today's conversation: 

• Mylien’s story about how she came to this work
• The 5 principles of Constructive Dialogue that the Institute has established
• The power of curiosity and storytelling in constructive dialogue
• The importance of humility, self-worth, and feeling that you matter
• The power of emotional intelligence and nervous system regulation in navigating hard conversations more effectively

More about Mylien:

Dr. Mylien Duong has deep expertise in developing scalable behavioral interventions. Trained as a clinical psychologist, she was previously a senior research scientist at the Committee for Children, where she led the research to develop a social-emotional learning program for teachers in K-12 schools. Prior to that, she was faculty at the University of Washington, where they conducted federally funded research studies to develop and test behavioral interventions for youth in school and juvenile justice settings. She has received over $17 million in grant funding and published over 40 scientific articles and book chapters. For more: https://constructivedialogue.org/

Did you find this episode inspiring? Here are more conversations we think you'll love:

• Dr. Marc Brackett - Permission to Feel: The Power of Emotional Intelligence
• Parker Palmer - Reflections on Living with an Open Heart

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