…Richard: One of the most exciting things in talking with people from the Treasury in New Zealand for example is to hear that what they’re wanting to learn how to do is to have a vision that stretches out into the future. And they’re saying: well, most [...]]]>

Part 11 of the transforming communication interview is here:

…Richard: One of the most exciting things in talking with people from the Treasury in New Zealand for example is to hear that what they’re wanting to learn how to do is to have a vision that stretches out into the future. And they’re saying: well, most Treasuries around the world realise that they missed the ball when it came to global warming. That it’s going to cost billions of dollars for us to deal with what’s happened in the world with global warming. And we could have anticipated that but we were too busy looking at the details. And we were in a sense too busy making sure that we won this little battle and we lost the whole process.

And so, that’s something that I think happens often in relationships. People focus on: I’m going to win this battle. And they don’t realise what they’re loosing. Sometimes when they’re winning the battle they’re loosing their relationship. They’re loosing the whole thing. The thing they wanted most of all. So, that’s quite an exciting process.

Michael: One of the things that I really see from the whole Transforming Communication process is that it actually puts people in a situation where they become responsible for their own interactions in relationships and I think that’s a very powerful position to come from as a human being rather than: Oh god, I’m a victim because of my mum, my dad or whatever happened to me in the past.

Richard: Exactly, and this is such an old truth. You’ll hear it in the Christian teachings, you’ll hear in Buddhist teachings. The Dharmapada, the core book of Buddhism, begins by saying: In a person who thinks he abused me, he insulted me, he put me down, happiness doesn’t arise. And in someone who puts those things aside, happiness arises. I think that’s a core teaching in the world’s religions.

It’s the same when you look at Islam, the teachings of Mohammed. Mohammed was famous in his
life for creating cooperative relationships. It was said of him that he never hit a child. And he was a father, he was in those kind of relationships, and he was very good at it.

You find that, when you check the people who developed the world’s religious traditions. So what we’re doing is actually creating a vision that people’ve had for a long long time, we’re just finding specific ways to make that work.

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Hmmm…! Interesting…! Find out more in part 12 of the Transforming Communication interview…

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