Generating the courage to confront someone else’s bad behavior is tough. But it’s not the work. Creating a plan to confront someone’s bad behavior, rather than confronting and hoping that the act of doing so will be enough to create the change you want, is difficult. But it’s not the Read more…
If most negotiations are about whose version of reality will win, who decides what reality is? If many negotiations result in win-lose outcomes, are the “losers” as committed to the ultimate agreement as the “winners” are? If some negotiations happen because either party doesn’t ask the “right” questions, then what Read more…
The person who walks around while the Titanic is sinking, and calmly begins rearranging the deck chairs, organizing the evacuation, and gets everyone off the ship before it sinks becomes, by default, the future captain of the rescue vessel in the North Atlantic. That person also becomes a new Noah. Read more…
The moral arc of the universe bends towards justice. And justice, supposedly, is blind. Or so they say. But people, with their prejudices, conflicts, disagreements, and dissensions, have trouble arcing towards blindness. The issue with justice is not the fact of justice, that which is applied through the creation of Read more…
An all knowing, all seeing, all good God, sent His only begotten Son to the Earth to save sinners. Just writing this line, at this time of year, at the end of such a year as 2016, is considered naïve and near-sighted by many people. However, as a statement of Read more…
Before a new baby comes into the world, usually a family diligently prepares for its arrival. The family prepares the environment that the baby will thrive in, from the set-up of the room to the clothes the new baby will come home in. The family prepares their emotional life as Read more…
The manipulation is simple, but the consequences are complex. We lament “Why can’t we all just, get along?” and then we proceed to irritate, obfuscate, or deceive the other party. Then we look at them with Alfred E. Nueman’s famous facial expression and metaphorically shrug our shoulders. The problem is Read more…
As people choose the messages that they will receive and believe, does self-awareness, critical reasoning, and altruism matter? There are people in the United States who have no idea that conflicts between police and African American communities are raging. There are people in the United States who have no idea Read more…
As the economic, cultural, and spiritual forces that used to bind us together continue to refragment from overarching macro-cultures to indispensable micro-cultures, alternative dispute resolution practitioners must take notice. Overarching macro-culture was driven by communal events, television, economic stability, and overarching cultural “norms” that allowed people to engage in conflicts Read more…
From the Coliseum to Facebook, there has rarely been any mercy from the mob watching the participants in the arena. The reason the writers of the Constitution favored a Republic over all else, was that they believed the mob was a dangerous, unpredictable force that moved without logic, rationality, reason, Read more…