If we want to make meetings productive, we need to keep track of those whose requests are on the table.

We want to take action out of the desire to contribute to life rather than out of fear, guilt, shame, or obligation.

Fear of corporal punishment obscures children's awareness of the compassion underlying the parent's demands.

People have been trained to criticize, insult, and otherwise communicate in ways that create distance among people.

When we have our consciousness on needs, images come to us, naturally, of how to meet those needs.

If we become skilled in giving ourselves empathy, we often experience in just a few seconds a natural release of energy which then enables us to be present with the other person. If this fails to happen, however, we have a couple of other choices.

Labeling and diagnosis is a catastrophic way to communicate. Telling other people what's wrong with them greatly reduces, almost to zero, the probability that we're going to get what we're after.