How to divorce as allies, not enemies | Allison O'Brien | TEDxBoulder

Having navigated a divorce without lawyers or mediators, Allison O’Brien knows that divorce doesn’t have to split families apart. It can be done in a way that creates a different family dynamic, but one that nurtures and supports everyone involved. She introduces a framework, grounded in Listening, as the antidote to the typical acrimonious process. In a world where our discourse and communication culture has turned toxic, she presents this framework for navigating difficult, triggering conversations using listening and emotional agility to encourage deeper thinking and collaborative innovative outcomes. While she presents this through the lens of the divorce process, this skill and agility goes beyond just our family dynamic and extends into how we engage in every challenging conversation where viewpoints differ. Allison O’Brien is a communication consultant and Director of Training and Development with ECHO Listening Intelligence based in Boulder, Colorado. Since 2014 she has been helping to build a worldwide network of listening experts, certifying Practitioners to deliver the ECHO Listening Profile™ in 10 countries and across 4 continents. Allison works across all levels from high-potential individual contributors to C-Suite Executives and excels working with teams stuck in unhealthy conflict that struggle with accountability, effective communication, and collaborative decision-making. Within a broad scope of work including executive coaching, leadership training for new, emerging, and mid-level managers, sales training, workplace conflict resolution and corporate communication training focused on Listening, Allison provides hands on, real time practice of critical listening concepts that bring about the crucial insights needed for creating deep long lasting cognitive and behavioral change. After a decade of helping leaders and teams build psychologically safe environments to improve work outcomes, she found herself in a personal situation - the dissolution of a 15 year marriage - where she needed to apply every concept she taught in business settings. As a result, she managed to navigate a divorce with no lawyers involved, by harnessing the power of listening. Allison truly believes that we can change the world, the way we do business, the way we love and lead, one conversation at a time. And it all starts with listening. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx