The Diversity and Inclusion office welcomed author, trainer and life coach Kevin Neal as speaker for the Centering the Margins discussion series on Thursday, Oct. 26.
In his talk, “Bringing Your Full Self to Work: Overcoming Barriers and Building Bridges,” Neal explained communications strategies geared toward improving relationships among colleagues, students and health care providers and patients.
“What we’re going to be talking about is how to communicate in a way that reduces conflict; how to establish an atmosphere of influence, principles, reflecting and connecting with each other; and key practices to connect more with each other,” said Neal, a U.S. Army veteran and former firefighter/EMT, who has more than 30 years in the telecommunications field and holds degrees in information systems and ministry. He lives in Greenville, South Carolina.
Neal began his talk by sharing a personal experience in which a surgeon did not communicate well during a serious medical issue and how that made him feel. Years later, a new team of providers connected with him and gave him personal, “loving” care, which made him feel, “like I can make it. I can deal with this.”
Neal used this example to highlight the importance of good communication.
“We’re talking about not only the patient and the practitioner, or the employee and employer, or the student and the teacher—we’re talking about all these situations, because all of this takes a part of this connecting and building bridges. There’s a chasm often between what we want to convey and what people are receiving from us,” he said.
Neal offered tools that can help patient and practitioner interactions. “Doctors must move from a transactional to a relational interaction,” he said. They must address unconscious bias when it is pointed out to them. Patients must also tap into their sense of power by asking questions when something feels uncomfortable, he said.
“How people feel is going to determine their level of openness and we must be concerned about how they feel. Otherwise, they will not share some details about what they are going through,” Neal said.
Neal offered a list of “connecting, reflecting principles,” that he said will help people connect, such as understanding and valuing each other and listening and focusing on communication.
He concluded his talk by reminding listeners that a person’s dignity should be at the core when interacting.
“When we can be treated with dignity and treat one another with dignity, that will break down a lot of walls that currently exist and build bridges that connect us together.”
The Centering the Margins series features local and national speakers to UMass Chan Medical School who, through stories and research, amplify the need for diversity, equity and inclusion in medicine.
