Connecting Across Differences: Finding Common Ground with Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime

In this fully revised second edition, Dr. Dian Killian and Dr. Jane Marantz Connor offer a comprehensive and accessible introductory guide to exploring the concepts, applications, and transformative power of the Nonviolent Communication process. Providing research-based insight into the psychology of communication, this reference explores the most common barriers to effective communication and provides tangible steps to address these barriers head-on. The book features an expanded selection of relevant, meaningful exercises, role-plays, and activities that give readers the chance to immediately apply the concepts to real-life experiences. With lessons including how to transform negative self-talk into self-empowerment, how to foster trust and collaboration when stakes are high, and how to defuse anger, enemy images, and other barriers to connection, Connecting Across Differences teaches effective communication skills that get to the root of conflict, pain, and violence peacefully.

Jane Marantz Connor, PhD, is a certified trainer with the international Center for Nonviolent Communication and founder of the New York Intensive Residential Training in Nonviolent Communication. She received her PhD in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a graduate of the BayNVC North American Leadership Program. She taught psychology and human development for many years at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she is currently associate professor emerita of human development. She taught courses in compassionate communication, multicultural psychology, and human services. The goal of her multicultural psychology course, for which Jane has had a special passion, is to help students from diverse backgrounds understand and connect with one another more effectively. Jane received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for teaching this course, which grew to serve more than 400 students a semester. Jane has enjoyed sharing NVC in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia and now concentrates her teaching, training, and consulting in the Washington, D.C., area where she is also working as Coordinator of Restorative Practices at an inner city high school. Dian Killian, PhD, is a Certified Trainer with the international Center for Nonviolent Communication, founder and former director of The Center for Collaborative Communication, and a certified life coach and faculty member with the distance learning Coaching for Transformation program. She has written a book of graphic vignettes (illustrated by Mark Badger), Urban Empathy: True Life Adventures of Compassion on the Streets of New York. Through her company, WorkCollaboratively. com, she designs and leads trainings with companies and organizations in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Clients have included Merck, Inc., the UN Development Program, HCL (India), Americorp, Haver Analytics, and Instrumentation Laboratories, among others. She offers programs at Kripalu, the 92nd St Y, the NY Open Center, and the Omega Institute, and is founder and director of the annual NVC East Coast NVC Women’s Retreat. She also is a professional musician, and often integrates music in her retreats and is widely known for bringing humor, warmth, and a ＂down-to-earth＂ approach to her sharing of NVC. She can be reached at dian@workcollaboratively.com.