Crucial Conversations for Community Resilience

Skill building for people engaged in high stakes conversations about building community resilience and tackling challenging coastal management issues when opinions vary, and emotions run strong. A Crucial Conversation is a discussion between two or more people where the stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong. When conversations turn crucial, people tend to follow one of two ineffective paths: they either speak directly and abrasively to get the results they want but harm relationships, or they remain silent with the hope of preserving relationships only to sacrifice results. But theres a better way. Crucial Conversations give people the skills to step into disagreement rather than over or around itand turn disagreement into dialogue for improved relationships and results. Typically a 2-day training, Chris Feurt will give a high-level overview of best practices for having a crucial conversation when working on community resilience.

Christine Baumann Feurt, PhD is the Coastal Training Program Director for the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. Dr. Feurt is also a Research Associate with the School of Marine and Environmental Programs at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. Her interdisciplinary work uses Collaborative Learning to engage partners working on shared goals for clean water, diverse habitats and resilient coastal ecosystems. During 2020 Chris served on the Marine and Coastal Working Group of Maine's Climate Council to develop the four year Climate Action Plan, "Maine Won't Wait." She also worked with over a dozen National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) professionals to develop the "Resilience Dialogues" training course for people who facilitate collaborative research to benefit coastal communities and ecosystem resilience. Chris's Ph.D. in Environmental Studies is from Antioch University New England. Her interdisciplinary research examined the multiple ways people value water and watersheds, and how those values influence decision-making, policy, and action.