I have always felt it is a privilege to facilitate conversations with adults by cultivating a safe open learning space. While I studied long and hard to be a psychologist, I am also proud to be an educator/trainer.

A participant on an interpersonal skills program this week approached me at the end of the course and thanked me for helping him see he had an anger management problem. He asked for some strategies to help him on his way to conquering that “problem.” I was somewhat puzzled initially as we had never directly talked about such an issue and would never have done so in the company of twenty other participants. However he went on to explain the work we had done on Emotional Intelligence struck a deep resonant chord in him.  He admitted his wife had said he would “hate the program” when she found out his boss had sent him on it as she thought it would be far too “touchy feely” for him.

Isn’t it wonderful and oh so humbling to be reminded of the fact that we cannot presume to know how someone else will react or respond in a given situation and how wonderful to be in the room with people when their insights trigger some real behaviour change for the good.

Have you had such moments? Have you been there when someone had a profound insight they were prepared to act upon? Were they able to follow through?