MN2.8.4 – Three words that will change your life

Lesson Objectives

By the end of this lesson the learner will be able to:

• Understand the importance of making every member feel welcome, wanted, and needed within a group or organization.
• Identify common challenges faced when initiating and maintaining conversations with unfamiliar individuals.
• Utilize specific conversational techniques such as asking open-ended questions to keep dialogues engaging.
• Develop skills to strike up conversations confidently, ensuring meaningful exchanges that go beyond superficial greetings.
• Foster a mutual sense of connection and belonging between new and existing members in any community or organization.

Three words that will change your life

audio link

Picture this: you’re at a gathering or lodge meeting, surrounded by people you don’t really know. You want to engage, to be a part of the community, but striking up a conversation feels like an insurmountable challenge. It’s an uncomfortable situation many of us have faced, yet it can be transformed into a pleasant and rewarding experience.

As members of a global organization, a significant amount of our time is spent attracting, interviewing, and initiating new members. However, in our quest to grow, we sometimes neglect the members currently within our fold. Making every member feel welcome, wanted, and needed is crucial. This sense of belonging must be mutual, where both new and existing members actively seek to forge connections.

The difficulty in holding conversations isn’t unique. We’ve all been at those lodge meetings where, beyond a polite ‘hello’ or ‘nice to see you,’ the exchange falls flat. For some, initiating a meaningful conversation requires a bit of guidance. Fortunately, the skill to converse effectively can be taught, ensuring we don’t come across as awkward or, worse, creepy.

Imagine if you had simple phrases to break the ice and deepen the conversation—phrases like “Tell me more,” “What happened next?” and “That sounds interesting.” These three powerful lines can change your life by transforming how you connect with others.

In this lesson, we will delve into the techniques that can help you confidently start and hold engaging conversations, making uncomfortable challenges a thing of the past. Join me in exploring how to make every member, both new and old, feel genuinely part of our community.

Activities

Three words that will change your life

Read just this article in the series – (approx. 10 mins read plus a 17 mins TED Talk video presentation)

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