THE POWER OF CHECK-INS

Check-ins are powerful moments to take a pulse on “what is alive” with your students, team members, community.

It’s a way to listen to perspectives, deeply connect with people, and make them feel they belong. Check-ins are tools that can deepen our circles of connection. It can foster stronger bonds and help us understand areas in the relationship that needs tending to. It can also make us aware of what we need to celebrate, what needs amplifying, and what needs deconstructing.

When individuals feel disconnected, it makes it challenging to:

• know where to focus our attention
• engage?with the activities
• deliver on the intended impact and
• understand points of tension

Check-ins are valuable moments of connection among students and teachers, team leaders and leaders. It helps make visible the “heartbeat” of the community/ organization:

What are the people in the community feeling?

What are their longings?

What are their challenges?

What is their “internal weather like”?

What do they need?

So, if you are encouraged to do a check-in with your students, teams or community members, here are some questions/prompts you can ask:

• What/who are you celebrating?
• What/who are you grateful for?
• Who are you looking forward to connecting with?
• What got you excited about this day? This period? This month?
• What support would you need for today? This period? This month?
• How would you like to feel at the end of this day, month, or quarter?
• Share an unforgettable memory of the past months.
• In what life area are you focusing for this month/quarter?
• What’s one thing that you have on your “non-negotiable” list?
• What is your 1% for today? (An area that you would like to work on/focus on and the 1% action that can move you forward)
• What is your one-word intention for today?
• What question will you be working on, reflecting on for today?

CHECK-INS AS WINDOW TO OUR FEELINGS

Another valuable use for check-ins is to help people tune in to their feelings and needs. In nonviolent communication (NVC) or compassionate communication, feelings are the bodily sensations that arise in you as a result of having interpreted the stimulus in a certain way. These are descriptions of what is going on inside of you. The challenge most of us face is in discerning the difference between our?feelings?and our?thoughts. Thoughts are our mental evaluations or judgments of the experience.

Feelings are sensations that arise in response to a need being met or not met whereas thoughts are often based on beliefs, interpretations, or assumptions, and vary widely from person to person. As Marshall Rosenberg, founder of NVC wrote,?“If it has the word ‘like’ or ‘that’ after it, it’s not a feeling.

To help tune in with what you are feeling, use the feelings cards below (when needs are met and unmet)

CHECKS-INS AS PEELING THE LAYER OF NEEDS

When there are more opportunities or space to explore how each other is feeling, tuning in to the needs can be a logical next step.

“A need is life seeking expression within us.”-Marshall Rosenberg

All individuals have needs and values that sustain and enrich their lives.?When those needs are met, we experience comfortable feelings, like happiness or peacefulness, and when they are not, we experience uncomfortable feelings, like frustration.?Needs are the underlying universal human values that drive our actions and behavior.?

What are the needs behind our feelings?

Here is a list of needs that you can use in checking-in with yourself and with others.

WAYFINDING THROUGH WORDS

Words we use are like road signs that show direction.?When we are able to articulate how we are feeling and what we need, it provides clarity, transparency and connection.

We are united with our common needs. When we are in touch with our own needs, we are also able to experiment, express and encourage others on the different ways or strategies to meet these needs. By knowing and understanding each other's needs, we can build on creating deep connections and start a culture of empathy in schools, organizations and communities.

So, how are you feeling? and what do you need?

WHAT’S NEXT?

We finally released our strengths toolkit!?

You can download the full?"WHAT'S STRONG WITH YOU TOOLKIT"! You can download free sample pages for those who would like to make use of the tools that we have already released.?

We are a small team of volunteers dedicating our?time, energy and resources in advocating and creating more awareness around?Neurodiversity. Purchasing this digital product financially supports us in continuing our work in providing more tools and trainings especially for groups?or organizations that need support the most.?

We do not want finances to get in the way of foundations or initiatives doing great work in the world to access this resource. Please do get in touch if you are a non-profit and would like to get the full toolkit for free.

For those where money and funding is abundant, we would love to have your support! Your donation (to?Neurodiversity Foundation) can greatly help us in expanding our services to more schools, families and organizations.

EVENTS & WORKSHOPS

We are running the next "What's Strong With You?" learning lab on April 21 from 11:00-12:30 CEST. Do get your tickets here.

Interested in bringing more strengths-based practices to your schools, organizations, communities? Why not book a 30-minute exploratory call to discuss how we can support you and what we can offer.