The holder of this certificate possesses the knowledge, practical skills, and values of effective Conscious Communication:

1. completed fifteen (15) hours of intensive performance-based training and supervised practice;
2. demonstrated exceptional understanding of the core concepts of Conscious Communication;
3. applies these concepts and data-driven strategies to consistently improve communication.

Outline

1. Conscious communication is grounded in the physical world. Studying and mastering conscious communication requires knowledge and practice.
2. Human perception enables us to perceive the world around us. Our observations and conclusions are nearly always partial and incomplete.
3. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Victor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 1946.
4. Our communication abilities are a combination of our animal and uniquely human communication capabilities.
5. Communication includes monitoring and evaluating the extent to which the people we speak with grasp the meaning and intended follow-through actions that are part of our messages.
6. Healthy verbalizing usually takes off from what is non-verbal and terminates in the production of non-verbal effects. Frederick Perls, M.D., Ph.D.
7. The four levels of skill acquisition: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, unconscious competence.
8. The meanings of words lies within the receiver, not the sender of the messages. Some specific words appear to have predicable negative impact on conversations in many languages, such as “why” and “but.”
9. Use of E-Prime leads to a less dogmatic style of language that reduces the possibility of misunderstanding or conflict. Kellogg and Bourland describe misuse of the verb to be as creating a "deity mode of speech", allowing "even the most ignorant to transform their opinions magically into god-like pronouncements on the nature of things."
10. Expressive communication focuses on the speaker’s personal satisfaction of speaking. Outcome-oriented speech shifts this focus to propose communication is about outcomes.
11. The power of the “pause.”
12. Having purpose before speaking, being able to edit/modify the purpose during the conversation.
13. Monitoring grasping during and immediately following conversations to assess available data/evidence of grasping success.
14. Self-correcting feedback.