David Solie's [current link] book How to Say It to Seniors: Closing the Communication Gap with Our Elders is one that I recommend frequently. Just this week, I urged my sister to read the book. At his blog Aging Parents Insights, [now Second-Half of Life Blog] Solie presents an innovative way of communicating with aging parents: Mind maps. Excerpt from his post:
The goal was to provide the adult children with a way to visually show their parents the type of decisions that would have to made if things fell apart. They simply told their parents they would “do their best” when things fell apart and gave them a copy of the mind map. These are the things we are going to have to decide with or without you they said. No scolding. No lecturing.
A few weeks later their parents brought up the mind map. They has some questions. It was a start.
We are all visual people. Check lists, brochures, and passionate pleas may fall on deaf ears. But a mind map lays out the interconnecting parts, a global view of the complexity that lies ahead.
A few weeks later their parents brought up the mind map. They has some questions. It was a start.
We are all visual people. Check lists, brochures, and passionate pleas may fall on deaf ears. But a mind map lays out the interconnecting parts, a global view of the complexity that lies ahead.
Click to see the mind map this family created. Double click it to enlarge it. This would be an excellent tool for many generation mediations, don't you think? (Why I am not saying "elder mediation" but instead "generation mediation".) Here are many idealawg posts on what I previously tagged as "elder mediation."
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