Carol Bruess, professor emerita of communication and journalism, and former director of family studies at the University of St. Thomas College of Arts and Sciences, recently spoke with MPR about how effective communication skills can help us handle disagreements, build stronger connections, and even improve our health.
From the interview:
Host: Have you ever wanted to say to someone, “Just leave me alone” or “Don’t talk to me”? Sometimes it is hard to handle conflict when there are differences in beliefs, life experiences, and – yeah, you guessed it – but some pretty basic communication skills can help us. We just may need to relearn them. This hour, we’re going to talk about how to engage with people with whom we disagree. My guests will share some winning strategies for challenging conversations, and they’ll point out some losing strategies we may want to avoid. ...
Bruess: I mean, if we get down to the basics of this, we know – based on the clients – that our social and personal relationships are the single best predictor of how long we’ll live. Fifteen years longer if we have satisfying relationships! And that doesn’t mean conflict-free relationships; it means satisfying, life-giving ones. We can learn to turn conflict into connection to get the benefits of those kinds of social and personal connections. So, it is especially important now, in this environment. ...
Host: OK, and so then how we talk to one another is very key to that.
Bruess: Absolutely essential. We know there are a few micro-communication skills that we can change, that we can shift and that we can embrace, which can make major changes in how we connect with others.
