Relationship Building
For many years, the Adult Education Program at the Washington Ethical Society (WES) offered courses that help develop relationships between members of the community. The courses were entitled “Relationship Building”(RB) and “Eliciting the Best” (EB). Here is a Statement of Purpose for the Relationship Building course published in the 1979 Training Manual:
“No one is born knowing how to build good relationships. Relationship building is a skill that can be learned. In this six-week course you will learn a method of communication and conflict resolution that, with practice and commitment, can result in more satisfying relationships with friends and family and in the workplace.”
The first version of the course was developed by Senior Leader Don Montagna and WES member Lynne Waymon using material from the book Straight Talk: – A New Way to Get Closer to Others by Saying What You Really Mean, by Dr. Sherod Miller, et. al. It was taught over the years by many teachers.
In 2017, Mary Blandin Smith gave a 6 minute talk to the WES Sunday Meeting that recounted the main features of the Relationship Building Adult Education program. You can find a link to Mary’s talk on this page from the WES Classics Cellar.
In this archival web resource, we have assembled three versions of the training materials used by the instructors. These are different versions of the same basic teaching material but the optimal set for instruction may involve mixing and matching from the three sets. Please click on the following three links to see more about the training materials:
1979 – The first version of the course. Thanks to Mary Lou Casazza who provided this archival material.
mid-1980’s – anonymous editor, taught by Johanna London, who provided this archival material
1988 – anonymous editor. Material provided by Mary Lou Casazza
To an extent, RB courses were designed to help couples deal with relationship issues. In that regard, some of the platform addresses delivered by Senior Leader Don Montagna may provide additional content:
Lastly, here is an editorial recommendation: “The Relationship Building program should be understood in historical context. Developed at the end of the 1970’s, the course emphasized “Straight Talk”, self-expression and assertiveness – qualities that enhanced individual self esteem. Success in building relationships also depends on the ability to passively but thoughtfully listen – what we call deep listening. The power of deep listening for conflict resolution and relationships was very eloquently described by Daryl Davis in his platform address to WES of October 18, 2020. You can hear that talk starting 28 minutes into this SoundCloud Audio File. “ (editor Paul Baker)