Videos
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Unlearning Silence: How to speak your mind, unleash talent, and live more fully
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The Science of Speaking Up for Yourself | Elaine Lin Hering | Ten Percent Happier
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Inspirational Insights- Using Your Voice to Craft the Career and Life You Want.mp4
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Elaine Lin Hering with Ruchika Tulshyan: Finding Your Voice
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THE DANGER OF SILENCE with Elaine Lin Hering [CC]
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Unlearning Silence: Speaking Up at Work | Soulcast Media LIVE w/ Elaine Lin Hering
![THE DANGER OF SILENCE with Elaine Lin Hering [CC]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/uBx-Va8X7ek/hqdefault.webp)
Learn More About Elaine Lin Hering
Elaine Lin Hering is a speaker, facilitator, and writer. She works with organizations and individuals to build skills in communication, collaboration, and conflict management. She coaches women and minorities navigating executive leadership in majority-white spaces. She is a former Managing Partner at a global leadership development firm and is the author of the USA Today bestselling book, “Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully” (Penguin, March 2024).
Lin Hering has worked with coal miners at BHP Billiton, micro-finance organizers in East Africa, mental health professionals in China, and senior leadership at the US Department of Commerce. Having worked on six continents and across industries, she is known for her cross-cultural fluency and ability to educate across power and difference.
She has taught executive education programs at Harvard, Dartmouth, Tufts, UC Berkeley, and UCLA and served as the Advanced Training Director for the Harvard Mediation Program and as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. Her clients include American Express, Capital One, Google, IBM, Merck, Nike, Salesforce, Shell, Pixar, the Red Cross, and Workday. She has spoken at conferences ranging from the World Business Dialogue in Germany to the Auschwitz Institute on Peace and Reconciliation to the Global Leadership Summit.
Lin Hering previously taught negotiation and mediation at Monash Law School in Australia. Her research interests include unlearning silence, speaking up, and how race, gender, and nonapparent identities influence negotiation. Elaine has B.A.s in Political Science and Music from the University of California Berkeley and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Elaine Lin Hering is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group®.
Raise Your Team's Voice by Building a Culture of Openness
How can leaders avoid the trap of inadvertently cultivating environments where silence seems like the safest option, stifling innovation and honest feedback? According to Elaine Lin Hering, a former advanced training director for the Harvard Mediation Program and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, leaders can break these barriers by actively designing communication practices that incentivize speaking up. In this revealing presentation, she draws on her bestselling book, “Unlearning Silence,” as well as her extensive experience in conflict management and negotiation, to structure interactions that foster open dialogue and dissent, allowing for issues to be addressed before they escalate. Hering teaches audiences how to design communication practices that account for differences in wiring and how to ask questions that get below the surface, enabling leaders to dismantle cultures of silence. Attendees will leave with tools and strategies for fostering an environment where every voice is heard and valued, but not over-weighted. Using Hering’s approach, leaders find increased clarity for evaluating options and using their energy effectively, leading to enhanced problem-solving and decision-making across all levels of the organization.
Learn Powerful Strategies for Enhancing Team Engagement
Teams work to solve problems, but conflict and communication struggles often undercut collaboration. According to Harvard Law School lecturer Elaine Lin Hering, individuals using their voices, leads to newfound innovation, fresh ideas and creative thinking. In this educational session, Hering tackles this challenge head-on by showing audiences of employees and leaders how they can recognize and unlearn unconscious patterns that keep people silent. By revealing what’s driving these actions, she helps team members see how they can make more intentional choices about how they want to show up. A warm and relatable speaker, Hering unpacks how to identify each teammate’s value and offers concrete steps for finding and using your individual voice toward collective success. By illuminating the role silence has played in everyone’s careers, Hering provides attendees with strategies for calculating the real and perceived costs and benefits of speaking up, and how to best enable workers and leaders to raise their voices.
Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully
(Penguin, March 2024)
Thank God for the Feedback: Using Feedback to Fuel Your Personal, Professional and Spiritual Growth
(Speck Books, August 2015)
Building Effective Speak Up Cultures
Creating a dynamic communication environment within teams doesn’t happen by accident – it requires intentional design and leadership commitment. This interactive workshop led by Elaine Lin Hering, bestselling author of “Unlearning Silence,” tackles the common yet overlooked problem of silence within teams, which can undermine both performance and morale. Focusing on practical interventions, guided discussion and engaging activities, this eye-opening session offers a hands-on approach to reshaping communication practices across organizations. Participants will undertake exercises that mirror real-world scenarios to design more inclusive communication strategies and learn the right questions to ask to unlock true team potential. Attendees will leave this educational workshop with immediately applicable tools for fostering a culture that celebrates and utilizes the full range of employees’ ideas, insights and expertise. Leaders will be empowered to bring open communication, enhanced collaboration and better team effectiveness back to their organizations.
Praise for Elaine Lin Hering
"Elaine changed my life. She spoke both to my work and to my soul."
"I’ve already received numerous emails, texts, and IMs sharing how valuable your session was. And even better, many are readying for the book club discussion next week."
"Elaine is so good at what she does. Her ability to connect with audiences immediately and in a human way, her masterful knowledge and unparalleled listening and reflection invite and enable others to get better."
"Elaine is the best interviewers... [the Global Leadership Summit] has ever had."
"Elaine was able to balance two important factors throughout the training. On the one hand, she could offer vulnerability and her own demonstrative stories/examples, which made her relatable. On the other hand, she came across as very expert and knowledgeable about the subject matter, which established trust with the audience right away."
"It was dreamy – if that’s the proper way to describe it. It was perfectly wonderful and we are extremely grateful for the experience!"
Praise for "Unlearning Silence"
"A transformative guide that delves deep into the intricate dynamics of silence, unraveling why individuals often withhold their voices and the subtle ways they unintentionally stifle others. 'Unlearning Silence' is a masterful exploration of the intricate art of communication. Run, don't walk, to read this book. It is such a powerful exploration of voice and the courage and space to use it."
"A necessary read. With empathy and clarity, Elaine unpacks what makes it so hard to honor ourselves and talk with each other. 'Unlearning Silence' offers an opportunity and tools to change things within and around us – for ourselves and those we love."
"'Unlearning Silence' is the book I wish I had when I started my career. Hering not only proves why silence is toxic, but, critically, goes a step further and shows us how to speak up in a way that is safe, values aligned, and has the greatest chance of being impactful. This book is going to change the workplace for the better."
"Too often as women, we are told we are the problem. Books tell us to just be more confident. To show up and then speak up. Elaine goes deeper and shows us that the silence we've been indoctrinated by runs deep and it is what holds us back and makes us feel small. A must read for every leader."
"We cannot heal our world if we do not unlearn silence. An inviting and essential read."
"Whether we have been socialized to keep quiet, punished for speaking up, or feel panic at the prospect of voicing our truth, our silence deprives the workplace and the world of our ideas and crucial contributions. Elaine Lin Hering’s amazing book provides the secret recipe for breaking silence once and for all! Everyone should read "Unlearning Silence" — including a lot of men who mute themselves and look the other way when sexism and bias rear their heads."
