One Hour Program

The stories we have been told since childhood say the head and heart are separate.  As we navigate our lives, we acquire a tool kit to make sense of the world, and unfortunately some of these tools aren’t right for the job. As the old saying goes, when all you have is a hammer everything starts to look like a nail. When we think about our thinking, step back with compassion for ourselves, and assess our mental tool kit, we can reveal real insights for learning, leadership, and meeting our core values.  

Cognitive biases are tools that we use and sometimes they work well and sometimes they don’t.  This town hall will explore how our cognitive biases function in our lives and provide a tool kit to integrate them mindfully and compassionately with ourselves and those we work with.  In this town hall, Dr. Seth Halvorson, a Historian and Philosopher will explore these topics and lead a conversation on these questions: 

+Why do cognitive distortions such as polarized thinking, mental filtering, jumping to conclusions, and catastrophizing sometimes act like our mental glue; helping us tolerate the world or conversely stand as barriers to reaching our goals?

+How can identifying these distortions serve as a starting point to reframe them to integrate our heads and our hearts to make good on our principles, such as making it count, leading with empathy, and doing the right thing?

Key insights will be shared to help us successfully overcome the obstacles to transformative teaching, learning, and leadership to assist us in the critical work of public service and building the capacity of our teams.