We have a few people that we have worked with this year, here at Human Services Consulting and Training that we would like to thank this year: SUNY-Broome Community College SUNY-Broome Community College – Workforce Development Levene, Gouldin & Thompson Southern Tier Young Professionals White Knight Productions Central Baptist Church Read more…
Generating enough revenue to pay the bills is the ultimate goal of making peace as a conflict consultant. Without revenues, there is no business and without business, there is no opportunity to engage in the hard work of making a dent in the universe and making peace in someone’s life. Read more…
For many organizations, the 21st century has proven to be pretty much the same as the 20th century. People still get hired and fired in much the same ways that they did 20 years ago. Organizations and businesses still do the core processes of their businesses—sales, finance, marketing, accounting—in the Read more…
The signs of the post-American (some would say post-empire American) world, are all around us, from Trayvon Martin to the latest corporate hacking issues at Sony. The center is holding culturally and economically, in “flyover country,” where—outside of a very few areas in the economy—failure is still not tolerated, taking Read more…
The Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz noted, about 230 years or so ago, that “War is the continuation of Politik with the addition of other means.” In a digitally connected world, hacking, data thefts, downloading intellectual property without previous permission, plagiarism without appropriate attribution, are all “added on means.” Depending Read more…
What is self-determination? It is an individual and personal equation, involving a combination of autonomy, intrinsic motivation, understanding of cause and effect and the intellect and character to make empathetic choices. Preserving client self-determination in conflict resolution is the purview of ‘the experts”: People who are more educated than the Read more…
The struggle of consulting goes beyond setting up a timetable for success and knowing when to pull the plug if it’s failing. The struggle of consulting is in making generosity a priority when every fiber in the consultant’s body and experiences screams for selfishness, pulling in, pulling back and cutting Read more…
A negotiated agreement is the endpoint of many crucial conversations. There are always alternatives—worst and best for each party—to getting to that endpoint. The alternatives are detours a negotiation can take that allow parties to migrate away from the endpoint. If the endpoint of agreement isn’t the point of a Read more…
Mapmaker William Smith and Mennonite Wilma Derksen were recognized for the impact they created with their projects, their perspectives and their approach to life. They “got their due in the end.” Depending upon your frame of reference, their due came either too late or way too late. It used to Read more…
After blogging for almost two years, I’ve learned a few important things: If I wait for inspiration to write, it won’t ever come. Inspiration happens when my butt hits the seat and I begin to stare at that blinking cursor and the white paper. I became so much better at this Read more…