Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully

Why is it so hard to speak up at work, especially when you’ve finally gotten a seat at the table? What assumptions are you holding about your own voice? Throughout life, we’re often encouraged to just speak up! In this deep-dive webinar, bestselling author Elaine Lin Hering will share strategies to recognize and unlearn unconscious patterns so we can make intentional choices about how we want to show up at home and at work. Her empowering, compassionate, and practical approach acknowledges that we’ve all been both silenced and silencers. This groundbreaking webinar tackles questions including:

• What does silence look like? Silence is not always literal. Sometimes, we feel pressured to conform to dominant ideas, or we hedge and sugarcoat our needs until no one can hear them.
• Why do we self-censor? Whether our livelihoods are at stake, we don’t want to upset our loved ones, or we’ve absorbed unconscious beliefs, there are valid reasons we feel the need to be silent.
• How do we find our own voice? Maybe we’ve played by others’ rules for so long that we don’t remember our values and strengths. Hering will offer tips on rediscovering your voice and using it well.
• How can we support others? Even the most well-meaning of us unintentionally silence others, but there are practices we can implement to foster equity and collaboration.

About the author: Elaine Lin Hering, author of the national bestseller Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully, is a facilitator, speaker, and writer. She works with organizations and individuals to build skills in communication, collaboration, and conflict management. She has trained mental health professionals, political officials, religious communities, and leaders at companies including American Express, Capital One, Google, Nike, and many more. Elaine is a former Managing Partner of Triad Consulting Group and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, specializing in dispute resolution, mediation, and negotiation.