69 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review from a Professional Mediator, February 1, 2006
This review is from: Speak Peace in a World of Conflict: What You Say Next Will Change Your World (Paperback)
Reading Marshall Rosenberg's newly released book, Speak Peace in a World of Conflict helped me to deepen my understanding of the "heart of mediation" and inspired hope that positive social change was achievable. Rosenberg reveals an abundance of practical strategies that can transform your conflict resolution practice against a background of profound insight into his theory of human conflict and violence.
Marshall Rosenberg has tirelessly traveled the globe mediating disputes and training practitioners in Nonviolent Communication for more than forty years. In this new work, he offers an overview of the "mechanics" of the NVC process interwoven with a tapestry of tales illustrating the "consciousness" of NVC and its real world application. Rosenberg also adds theory concerning the roots of violence, the role of language, "domination systems" and "enemy images", while offering unique strategies for dispute resolution used by everyone from Israeli kindergartners to African tribal chieftains.
Three themes delineate the book's structure. The first section of the book covers the "Mechanics of Speaking Peace", including an overview of the Nonviolent Communication process developed by Rosenberg. Featured throughout this section are exercises that invite the reader to have a direct experience of the potential of the process to deepen self-awareness and open to new possibilities for how we interact with one another.
In Part 2, Rosenberg focuses on "Applying Nonviolent Communication". First, he shows how the NVC process can be utilized for working on oneself to deepen a connection to "divine energy", a phrase Rosenberg uses to describe the "spiritual basis" of NVC. He defines this divine energy as "our natural life-serving energy", and asserts, "this divine energy is manifest in the joy we feel in giving to one another."
Rosenberg continues, "Unfortunately, many of us are blocked from that divine
energy by the way we've been taught to think". He offers Nonviolent Communication as a process for connecting with this divine energy, first in oneself, and then within the context of interpersonal relationships and social change. He covers the practice of empathy, a skillful process required to sustain connection in a mediation context. Rosenberg also explains the roots of violence contained in the language we have all been educated to speak.
Finally, in "Speaking Peace for Social Change", he focuses on effective strategies for facilitating social change. Including examples from the fields of education and intertribal conflict, he highlights our habitual tendency to manufacture "enemy images" which limit our capacity to be effective agents of social change. He shows how the NVC process can be used to dismantle these enemy images and build a bridge of connection, human to human. He also gives explicit ideas for how to use the NVC process in mediating disputes at all levels of human interaction, including a powerful and unique strategy to employ when one or more disputants resist coming to mediation.
Rosenberg offers practices for dealing with the burnout and despair common for
agents of social change, including the power of gratitude for building internal resources to sustain one's efforts in a world filled with pain and suffering.
Although some of the material in Speak Peace will be familiar to readers of Rosenberg's previous books, this book contains a depth and breadth not available there. Rosenberg conveys his material in a light-hearted yet deeply touching manner. Reading the book, I both laughed out loud and was moved to tears.
This book will be valuable to both new and veteran practitioners because it offers a rare insight and clarity into the nature of human conflict and its resolution, while offering specific exercises and practices designed to immediately implement the theory and make it practical.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good followup to NVC, January 4, 2007
This review is from: Speak Peace in a World of Conflict: What You Say Next Will Change Your World (Paperback)
"Speak Peace In A World Of Conflict" is a necessary book in these challenging times. There is so much tension in the world that it is difficult to think positive, much less speak in a manner that is compassionate. You may be familiar with Rosenberg's other book, "Non-Violent Communication". Well, that book transformed my thinking about how I communicated with others, especially with my family. I always prided myself on my 'clear communication' but I didn't realize that my communication was filled with sarcasm, aggression and control. After reading that book, I learned how to LISTEN emphatically and to realize that we are all basically trying to 'get our needs met' when we communicate. This created a paradigm shift in myself and I learned to listen also to my own needs, which helped me to be more clear, more kind and less abrasive.
"Speak Peace" is a great follow-up book to "Non Violent Communication". It gives real life examples and more depth to the whole concept. If you are uncertain about NVC, this book will clarify it further. I am continuing to apply the principles and I have noticed a new warmth and joy in my family relationships. Recently, we had a very trying situation that brought out a lot of anger, hard feelings and misunderstandings - by following NVC, I was able to reduce the negativity and diffuse the conflict. Very healing stuff. I recommend any of Rosenberg's books.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Much more than the title says.., January 25, 2009
This review is from: Speak Peace in a World of Conflict: What You Say Next Will Change Your World (Paperback)
This book is not a 'read only' book, it is a 'do it/work on it' book. It's about making peace at three different, but so very much connected and intertwined, levels: a world of conflict; a personal relationship of conflict; a person of conflict. So many people speak of peace or about peace, but they bring no peace. And why not? Because one has to be at peace with oneself before one can truly bring peace in ones relationship or in the world. This book gives us the tools to do just that. We can make peace with ourselves and from there bring it into 'the outer world'. This is one of the most important books I have read for a long, long time. This book is learning (I am not finished yet by far..) me to be at peace with myself, which is something completely different from 'control myself' or terms like that. It gives me a milder, softer point of view about who I am, what I do, and why I did things that I did, in the way that I did them. Because of that, or together with that, it is also learning me to understand, and connect with, other people from a different, milder, softer point of view. And yet at the same time it makes me stronger. It is not about a weak 'peace' such as in 'avoiding conflict' or 'giving in'. But about a strong peace, because we can (learn to) see clearer what is happening inside ourselves and the other person(s) and act in a way that both we and our 'opponents' come out winning. This book is not only about speaking peace in a world of conflict. This is a book about finding peace within yourself and through that, being able to truly bring peace into your world, it is a book about healing and a book about 'winning together'; a book about hope for a split up and violent world. I love it and recommend it with all my heart.
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