Civil Communication Everywhere - Why Not?

We’ve all seen the memes about the week between Christmas and New Years where no one knows what time it is, you’re bloated, and it’s acceptable to drink champagne at 10am. 

All true - and I took full advantage of the days off. But I also took advantage of an opportunity I had to present to an Adult Education class when I was home in Tucson, AZ. 

It was an unconventional seminar as I usually do not present in front of family but both my grandparents were in attendance (and cheering me on) as well as my fiancé who was gracious enough to take pictures and videos that I will weave into this post. 

The seminar was titled “Civil Communication Everywhere - Why Not?”

I am on a mission to redefine communication.

We all know communication as the way we receive and interpret messages but I take the re-definition one step further and believe that communication can be redefined as communicating productively. 

I encouraged each of the audience members to come up with their own definition of Civil Communication - and I ensured them that it is OK if they feel uneasy about this topic. 

Civil Communication is a new muscle to flex. It is an entirely new phrase we are learning and adopting. 

But it is equally important - especially in today's world. In a world where generations are bridging gaps in the workplace and in social media. In a world where values are changing. And in a world where being “politically correct” has more weight than engaging in productive discussion.

In fact, because of the changing values in the marketplace, and because it is more common for people to hide behind their own opinions before trying to understand where other’s are coming from, I had all participants engage in a discussion of their own values.

Participants values ranged from consistency to respect to honesty and beyond. It is important to discuss values because that is what makes us human - and that is the civil in civil communication.

From there, we discussed various vehciles to define and deploy civil communication. I will save the vehicles and the tools for my actual seminars - but I will write about the definitions here.

I define Civil Communication as the act of communicating productively. I believe Kim Scott formerly of Google defines Civil Communication as her book Radical Candor,  Cloud, a scholar I am fond of, describes it as a means to create ethical exchanges in difficult exchanges, and Brene Brown describes it as coming to an understanding in her book Braving the Wilderness. 

What is your definition of Civil Communication?

Do you think a seminar on this new tool, phrase, and scholarship would benefit your workplace or community?