During our first event held at The York School, we welcomed our Keynote Speaker Kirsten Siggins. Kirsten Siggins is a TEDx speaker and has been featured in Inc.com, Huff Post Blog, Parent Magazine, Mom’s Magazine, Smart Coos, Overthinking Conflict, Vancouver Breakfast Television among others. Kirsten is the co-author of The Power Of Curiosity: How To Have Real Conversations That Create Collaboration, Innovation & Understanding.
Kirsten helped us to consider asking important questions such as How can we fully engage in conversations with people we disagree with―while remaining calm and producing win-win outcomes? The key is curiosity, something we all naturally have as kids but that tends to get buried beneath our adult responsibilities and multitasking lifestyles. The good news is that we just have to relearn what we already know!
She highlighted that using curiosity is key to learn about the stories that we tell ourselves and will help us to better understand what we know to be true. It is also important to understand the difference between “What’s the matter” and “What matters to me”. In any group setting – whether professional or family – individuals may share values but define them differently. Therefore it is important to come to agreement through curious conversation to define what shared values look like.
Conflict resolution is essential to innovation, it is how you get to the bleeding edge of what is possible. How leaders navigate their way through conflict, lead their teams and ask the questions needed to out perform, out design and out create in their field can make or break them. (Daymond John, Fashion Mogul and Investor on ABC’s’ Shark Tank)