I have been working on the development of this site since 1997, and on the workbook featured here since 1985. I have been helped greatly in this work over the past several years by an informal board of editors. This wonderfully kind group of about fifteen teachers, scholars, community activists, parents, and business people review and comment on the material that I present here on this site. All of us are involved in one way or another in nurturing the life of dialogue and encouraging reconciliation, cooperative problem solving and conflict resolution. Together we form a kind of cooperative communication research community. The overall goal of this site is to support people in learning new ways of talking and listening over a period of several years, using the Workbook as an outline and providing, through the Bookstore, the best available books by a wide range of teachers, scholars and therapists. We encourage people to develop "study buddies" and small, cooperative learning groups. My experience has been that learning new interpersonal communication skills is a challenging activity, one that requires deep involvement, ongoing practice and support from others. My students, colleagues and I are always searching for better ways to provide support for that involvement and practice. One hope of mine that as more people use the workbook they will share their learning experiences with other learners via the e-mail Journal of Cooperative Communication Skills. The interpersonal communication field suffers from a kind of "embarrassment of riches." There is so much good advice out there that I doubt than any one human being could ever follow it all, or keep it in mind while having a conversation. The workbook is my effort to identify, summarize and popularize the most important principles of good interpersonal communication, as understood by many communication scholars and psychotherapists. My goal is to make these great ideas easier to find, easier to understand and easier to practice. I am continually refining the Workbook by using it as the basis of courses I teach in both college and business settings. Our Recommended Reading List & Bookstore highlights many excellent books on interpersonal communication, and especially those that have been the inspiration for the workbook. Our On-Line Library of essays, articles and papers is growing toward the goal of presenting a wide range of approaches to of better communication. The Library's first guest essayist is Ms. Gene Knudsen Hoffman, a Quaker peace activist who writes on the topic of Compassionate Listening. We invite and encourage organizations to adopt the Workbook as their organizational interpersonal communications plan, and to create organization-based communication study groups committed to skill, mutual respect, honesty and compassion. We are in the process of receiving continuous feedback from various individuals and organizations that are using the Workbook. We invite your comments and suggestions.
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