开云体育

I teach adults who have been laid off from closing factories and are in a 6-month retraining as computerized bookkeepers. They're taught the bookkeeping in the afternoon, but in the morning I teach S.C.A.N.S. (The Secretary's Council on Acquiring Necessary Skills). Below are the competencies that I must grade students on. I can't play with the competencies themselves, but I am trying to rework the language I use to communicate them to students and the way I teach them. The bulleted areas are what I have so far....Suggestions?
Thanks, Kathy

SCANS COMPETENCIES

Interpersonal Skills: Works cooperatively with others and contributes to group with ideas, suggestions, and effort.


a.. Im honest with myself. I respect myself. I value myself and others. I trust that I will say and do what is best for myself and others. I look for the good in myself first; then I can see it in others. I work with others. As others get to know me, they see me as a leader.

Information Skills: Selects and analyzes information and communicates the results to others.


a.. I appreciate how I am able to gather new information and remember more and more each moment of the day.

General Office Skills: Selects relevant, goal-related activities, ranks them in order of importance, allocates time to activities, and understands, prepares, and follows schedules.


a.. Im learning to set priorities and make choices about how I use my resources: energy, time, attention, and money.

Problem Solving: Recognizes that a problem exists and devises and implements a plan of action to resolve it.


a.. I am constantly discovering different ways of doing things.

Business Writing: Applies appropriate principles of good business writing.

Business Communication: Organizes ideas and communicates oral messages appropriate to listeners and situations.


a.. I watch my communication skills develop day by day; I notice how this makes me feel.

Math: Applies math principles to business situations.

Filing: Applies appropriate filing method.

Office Machines: Keyboarding, typing & 10-key calculator.


a.. I remember how smart and capable I am, how I enjoy exploring new things. As others get to know me, the see me as someone who knows what Im doing.

Hi Kathy,

I'm interested in what you are doing here. I like the way you are
thinking about the people you are working with and what you are intending to
communicate to them. This is very refreshing and much needed in working
with those who have experienced downsizing. I'm sharing my experience
below. Please don't take it overly seriously if your intuition tells you
differently. Of course my experience is impacted by my beliefs, so you will
certainly have different beliefs and experiences.

There are 2 thoughts crossing my mind, depending on the area in
which you work and the openness of the people you'll be encountering to
anything that seems a little "weird." I'm in the Midwest where lots of
people are still frightened by anything that seems "weird" so I, personally,
have chosen to do more nonverbal communication of these principles and
choose the most ordinary words and phrases when I talk about the ideas. A
concept from The Course In Miracles (also Abe) that I use regularly is that
healing/love, once offered, is always received. It is always received, but
only when it is not threatening or fearful to the person receiving it
(sometimes that's quite a while after it is offered, maybe even when people
transition to nonphysical and release resistance, I think.)

So I try to approach things using words and phrases that would not be
fearful -or seem strange- to the group I'm working with. I do a great deal
of my work nonverbally at home and silently in the spaces that occur during
interaction and I only try to teach the more powerful Abe-type things if
asked or if people respond positively to the little clues I throw out in
very normal (or nearly normal) language. When they do respond positively, I
try to tune in to my intuition about how much I can extend that will be
received as "love" (per Course in Miracles language) and how much might
bring about fear. For me, this works very well and I have what I would once
have considered "miracles" happen in a large percentage of my total
interactions and certainly in almost every group training I do. (Abe talks
about this too--doing relationship work when you're not with the person and
doing something that's not controversial when you're with them.) I bring
this up because I think people who have been downsized or whatever are often
tuned to a fear vibration and, to connect with them, small steps are needed;
large steps may be like Abe used to talk about when the merry-go-round is
too fast.

One other thought. Abe says when we pick up one end of a stick, the
other end comes too. (Recent tape San Antonio, I believe, and lots of
others as well.) Another way they say this is when we focus on one desired
belief or goal, the beliefs we hold that contradict this intention come to
the surface. For this reason lots of us on the list have had the experience
of picking up one end of the stick on several subjects at once (taking BIG
steps) and then getting the other end too with considerable strain. A more
recommended way seems to be to take smaller steps and get a little more
stable change. This may apply to the people you are working with, again
because they have been a bit "pulled down" by observing the things that go
with layoffs. Some of the items below, including my suggestions, may be very
large steps for them and, if so, you may get feedback that they are getting
hold of both ends of the stick at once. (Of course you may find that good,
as, during training they become aware of the beliefs they hold that are not
helping them meet their goals, however my experience is that this goes
better small steps at a time rather than large ones as group resistance/fear
can be a big vortex.)

I have chosen to work with people who, by nature, are conservative
because I love other aspects of their nature. I'm aware that my approach
also is conservative and so you may not want to take it too seriously if
your nature is different. I have seen less dramatic changes work better,
but, to be fair, I'm probably not comparing to more dramatic approaches by
practiced deliberate creators! And, of course, I see evidence of what I
expect so my experience is just that---my experience! :)

Having said all that, I didn't do that with my suggestions here; rather
I followed the pattern you have been working with, making a couple of
suggestions.

I applaud your thinking. Hope my post in no way slows your vibration.
That's definitely not my intent.


Freedom And Joy

Appreciating your feedback. Would be interested in any suggestions you have;
don't feel limited by my format. I am looking for ways to express this in
everyday language that will release the resistance and fear, not create
more.....looking forward to hearing from you.

Kathy

Hi Kathy, (not sure if this is best for the list or if it should be
PEM---if too much detail for listreader, please delete!)

A couple ideas off the top, then I'm going to dinner and see if I have any
more ideas later. I somewhat hesitate to even submit this to you because
such different styles work for different people. However, maybe reading it
will synchronistically spur some ideas for you that are unique to you and
work wonderfully for you.

Some things I have done in somewhat similar circumstances:

Discuss some of the dynamics of layoffs and how participants experience that
as briefly as possible, but enough for folks to get to express themselves
and/or feel "heard". (I'm looking for ways around that part, but people who
are not Abe-thinkers do want to be heard--even we Abe-thinkers do--listen to
us explaining at Abe conferences--Abe cuts some of us off before we create
more of what we don't want, but allows many others to continue considerably,
depending on what they seem to need.)

Usually bring out something about the negative thoughts that often occur,
but I try to comment on these lightly: sort of like "negative thoughts we
all have but that don't serve us very well." I don't like to spend much
time on how real these can be because that makes them all the more real.
(This is, of course, contrast, but I try to keep it very concrete and
understandable in their experience.)

Then talk some about how physiology works and how negative/hopeless
thoughts create problems psychologically and physiologically. You may
already have great references for that or you might like to use some of the
material in HEARTMATH SOLUTION by Doc Lew Childre. (I find the heartmath
material a little challenging to teach to others--haven't mastered it myself
yet although I believe it is VERY powerful and "on the leading edge" so I
personally wouldn't try to teach their solution, but would use it or
something similar to highlight why it doesn't do well to dwell on the
negative thoughts that are natural but not helpful.)

Sometimes in here I can talk about how attention is the mechanism that
mediates whether we have positive or negative physiological and
psychological reactions and give some examples.

Than go to some better thoughts. I do sometimes teach focus wheels if
people seem ready to listen, but I make them sound very concrete. I do
comment that you have to tune into your inner direction but I don't
elaborate much on that unless I get some encouragement from the audience.
Again, I try to use a light touch.

Then I might take SKANS competencies and ask them to help develop some ways
of knowing if they are meeting the competencies (for themselves, perhaps,
not necessarily for the whole group.) You can put the stuff they generate
on the board or flip chart or whatever and sometimes insert gentler words--I
do always ask permission to do that, but I also communicate that I may ask
to do that.

One way to frame this is, "What would be the FIRST signs that a person is
getting this?" "What might later signs look like?" As people give
responses, I might help them see that first signs are different for
different people and that it may be up to THEM to show YOU (or each other)
what the first signs might be for themselves. I.E., involve them in imaging
the first signs and the later signs for themselves and ask them to be alert
to other signs that might come up without them even figuring it out ahead of
time.

Humm, hunger calls.

One dynamic I'm thinking about is that they may already feel that they have
a lot of skills and may consider it a bit insulting that they should have to
develop more---or they may secretly or more blatantly feel that they have
almost no skills for the new learning that must take place. Whichever it is
would be interesting to me as it would help me frame what I'm going to teach
in a way that (at least I hope!) is less threatening and more congruent with
how they see themselves. Of course they do have skills: they have lived a
lot of life, but they may or may not perceive it that way.

Hope this has some helpful stuff in it. Again, congratulations on having
such a wonderful job opportunity to uplift and be uplifted by the
experiences before you (plural, you and them!).


Freedom and Joy

From: "Kathleen A. McGrane" <kathy@...>

----- Original Message -----
From: Kathleen A. McGrane <kathy@...>
To: focus1 <focus1@...>; <Abraham-Hicks@...>
Sent: Sunday, August 01, 1999 4:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Abraham-Hicks] My class

Appreciating your feedback. Would be interested in any suggestions you

have;

don't feel limited by my format. I am looking for ways to express this in
everyday language that will release the resistance and fear, not create
more.....looking forward to hearing from you.

Kathy