The ultimate purpose of managing interpersonal conflict is to grow us emotionally in self-awareness, storytelling, emotional management, and moral and ethical character. There aren’t any apps, searches, or other fancy technological shortcuts for the development of those traits in us.
Two things are happening simultaneously in our organizational cultures, our markets, and our personal lives. We have established non-curiosity (“I don’t care how it works, I just want it to work”) as the new standard for engaging with the work, the ideas that interest us (or not) and the world Read more…
There is a story (probably apocryphal) that the comedian Louis C.K., burns his jokes, his stand-up material, and his writing after successfully delivering it at the end of each year. This story reads like a corollary to the idea (popularized through the constant repeating of the alleged actions of the Read more…
There is value is putting on a show for some audiences. Without the show, there is no connection. Without the show, there is no invitation to participation. Without the show, there is no permission to be vulnerable in ways that will create value and impact. Connection. Permission. Participation. Vulnerability. These Read more…
No great change happens without conflict. Not one. And every great conflict generates resistance. Every time. So, since you know both things, decisions should be comparatively easy to make about change. Right?
Making noise, making a point, and making a difference are different actions. Where we run into trouble is when we conflate the results of all three and then use those results (and that conflation) to determine what our story will be to the market. Telling a story to the market Read more…
The deepest dive you can do is into yourself. If you want to find the resistance to changes that need to be made in your organization, it starts with you. If you want to discover why other people aren’t resonating with your story, it starts with you. If you want Read more…
The two most difficult roadblocks to success in resolving hard problems are the presence of real trade-offs and considerations of power. Most complicated problems and difficult conflicts have simple solutions. We often confuse what we believe is a hard solution with a complicated one. What makes solutions to hard problems not Read more…
There are 200 bad drawings inside every comic book artist. Just as there are an estimated 1,000 bad words/turns of phrase inside of every writer. And there are a certain number of below quality (or poor quality) teaching or training experiences inside of every teacher and trainer. There are 1,500 Read more…
The resistance to needed changes in your organization is insidious, pernicious, persistent and determined. And if you are committed to making changes by grappling with the resistance, your approach to resistant people, resistant systems, and resistant attitudes should be as well.