Yampa Valley Sustainability Council, Colorado Mountain College Steamboat Springs and Bud Werner Memorial Library are partnering to present the Sustainability Speaker Series. This ongoing series seeks to connect our community with timely insights, research and actions that inform and inspire how we build our sustainable Yampa Valley futures. The Series and discussion topics advance an integrated approach to social, economic, educational and environmental dimensions of sustainability challenges that lead toward collective solutions.

Dialogue and diversity specialist Elizabeth Parks discusses Listening Differently: Creating Space for Sustainable Collaboration.

What does it take to build collaborative relationships where we truly try to understand each other through listening, especially among people who have very different backgrounds or values? How can we build dialogue that promotes enduring connection that shows care, genuine curiosity, and moves our shared work forward? During this conversation, Elizabeth Parks offers a model for sustainable dialogue marked by expanding our understanding of what listening is, different listening styles we might adopt, and how expanding our listening toolkit can help foster organizational and stakeholder interactions that meet our shared goals.

Before her talk, Parks has two one-page listening self-assessments  that attendees are encouraged to complete. These self-assessments will deepen the conversation and possibly help improve your own listening. Download the self-assessments here.

Elizabeth S. Parks (PhD, University of Washington) is an assistant professor of Communication Studies at Colorado State University, the dialogue and diversity specialist for the Center for Public Deliberation, and adjunct faculty with the Colorado School of Public Health. Her scholarship blends social scientific and humanistic methods to better understand how we can improve listening and dialogue across difference in ways that contribute to individual and community well-being.

Sustainability Speaker Series: Listening Differently