Change Conflict Crisis. Working with children and families (2021)

1. Working with
Change, Conflict &
Crisis with Children
& Families
Self Awareness
With Nathan Loynes

2. “Yesterday I was clever,
so I wanted to change
the world. Today I am
wise, so I am changing
myself.” (Rumi).

3. Session Aims
• Define self-awareness according to theory.
• Explore how our personality (DISC) might
influence our self-awareness and impact
upon others.
• Analyse the components of self-awareness
with theoretical support.
• Reflect upon how self-awareness theory
can be integrated into our assignments.

4. Assessment as learning
Eating our elephant ‘one chunk at a time’ has
already begun! This week, we’re chomping of
the elephants foot
Key questions you need to ask of yourself:
1. How might I incorporate and cite the
concept of self-awareness into my 2000
word ‘All about me’ reflective log?
2. How can I cite self awareness into the case
study?

5. What does the elephant’s foot
taste like, Anyone?
• We can make a start on the reflective log by
writing 500 words as a ‘bench mark’ of where you
are now.
• The only thing you need to do is identify a critical
incident between now and reading week (17th
February) and write about 500 words on it.
• I have set-up a private ‘Reflective Log’ area in
Minerva. Record your thinking in there and I’ll
give you feedback.
• It helps keep things organised.

6. INFLUENCE
• Enthusiasm
• Friendly
• Optimistic
STEADINESS
• Sincerity
• Patient
• Modest
DOMINANCE
• Results
• Direct
• Competitive
COMPLIANCE
• Accurate
• Cautious
• Contemplative
OUTGOING
RESERVED
PEOPLE
ORIENTATED
TASK
ORIENTATED
DISC PERSONALITY TEST
https://www.123test.com/
disc-personality-test/

7. • In the chat, you can click the link to be taking to
the anonymous voting ‘mentimeter’
• Alternatively, you can access it on your
smartphone by clicking the QR code on this
screen
Shall we have a discussion?

8. What would Tasha Eurich say?
• Self awareness gives us ‘power’
• We’re more confident
• We’re more successful
There are two types of people:
1. 95 percent of people think they are self-aware
2. Actually, only 10-15 percent are!
• Most of us are lying to ourselves on a daily basis.
• When it comes to ‘self awareness’ (introspection) – most of
us are doing it wrong!
• And are more stressed and worse off!
• Thinking about ourselves is not the same as knowing
ourselves.
• We tend to operate on ‘confirmation bias’s
• The question ‘what’ is more useful than ‘Why’?

9. What would Neil Thompson say?
• Burnard (1992) Defines self-awareness as both knowing
your self & the impact you have on others.
• Our ‘self’ or personality is the tool with which we work with
other people. How does your DISC result explain your ‘self’.
What do you see as the
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
• That your DISC result might bring when working with others,
or how it might impact on your critical incident analysis in
your Reflective Log? Tell me?
• Howe’s ‘Think, Feel, Do’ framework can help us become
more attuned to our feelings?
• Remember, a critical incident is likely to illicit a strong
emotional response. Be attuned to and record those
feelings?

10. What would Neil Thompson say?
• What are the benefits of self-awareness
• More confidence in ourselves
• More likely to inspire confidence in others.
• More awareness of our ‘judgmentalness’ (See Rogers UPR)
• More aware of our own ‘triggers’ and ‘blind spots’
• Awareness of our own prejudices and the impact they might
have on our behavior towards others.
• Greater understanding of how we learn best. Aiding our
own development.

11. Thompson (2015)
The elements of Self-awareness
• Listening skills: Being able to ’tune in’
• Being aware of barriers
• The need to be assertive (awareness of power, our own and
other’s)
• Managing our anger and frustration, including passive-
aggressiveness (Murphy and Oberlin, 2005)
• Communication: Avoiding mixed messages, both verbal and
non-verbal.

12. Thompson (2015)
Being aware of how others
affect us
• Transference. That is, how a current person reminds us of
another person we know, and our feelings for the known
person are transferred to the current person.
• Triggers. Similar to transference, but triggers can be much
simpler than the more composite effects of transference.
For example, a single word or sight of an inanimate object
can act as a trigger.
• Blind spots. This involves having strong views on a subject
which would logically be applied consistently to another
similar subject, but are not. This inconsistency is a lack of
self-awareness in that area. A blind spot.

13. Thompson (2015)
Being aware of how others
affect us
• Fear. Working with people involves negotiating power and
threats. Some threats are obvious, such as physical violence,
some less obvious such as job insecurity and the way we are
managed.
• Our own needs. Although we primarily work in areas
catering to the needs of others; it can be dangerous to
ignore our own needs. A stressed-out, burnt-out worker
would certainly do more harm than good!

14. Thompson (2015 p.9)

15. Conclusions
• Self awareness involves two broad elements
• Knowing about ourselves
• Knowing about the impact we have on others
• Increasing your self awareness is generally
desirable.
• Self-awareness contains a number of contributory
components
• Most people think they are self-aware, but aren’t
• Feedback from others can contribute towards more
accurate self-awareness
• Asking ‘what’ questions of yourself, rather than
‘why’ questions is a good start on your journey.

16. Theoretical Support:
Recommended Reading
• Self Awareness. In. Thompson, N. (2015). People Skills (4th ed.). London. Red Globe Press.
• The Anatomy of self-awareness. In. Eurich, T. (2018). Insight Why We Are Less Self-Aware Than
We Think—and What to Do About It. New York. Penguin Random House. pp.25-37.
• Ethical Thinking - The four principles of health care ethics. In. Duncan, P. (2010). Values, Ethics
and Health Care. London. SAGE Publications. pp.62-78.
Enhancement Reading
• Blindspots - The Invisible Inner Roadblocks to Insight. In. Eurich, T. (2018). Insight Why We Are
Less Self-Aware Than We Think—and What to Do About It. New York. Penguin Random House.
pp.38-50.
• Morin, A. (2011). Self-Awareness Part 1- Definition, Measures, Effects, Functions, and
Antecedents. Social And Personality Psychology Compass, 5(10), 807-823.
• Sutton, A. (2016). Measuring the effects of self-awareness. Construction of the Self-Awareness
Outcomes Questionnaire. Europe’s Journal Of Psychology, 12(4), 645-658.

17. In preparation for next week
1. See if you can identify a critical incident
make as many notes as you in your Minerva
Reflective Log.
2. Try and include some theoretical support on
‘self-awareness’ into your log.
3. Engage with next week’s materials on
Emotional Intelligence. Can you link EI with
self-awareness?
4. Relate the key points of EI raised in
Gaille(2021) with your own strengths and
weaknesses
5. Undertake the the Emotional Intelligence
quiz. Make note of your results.
Next Week:
Emotional
Intelligence