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…
The part of the conflict process that is addressed the least (and the most) is the uncomfortable part. Not the scary part, where you’re actually doing the hard work of resolving an issue with people that you may (or may not) like. Not the uncomfortable part that comes after you’ve Read more…
The savvy entrepreneur in an ever changing business environment, should take a page from the book of entrepreneurs in other spaces. Particularly, that least savvy of all spaces, drug dealing. Now, I am not advocating for drug-dealing, illicit drug use, or engaging in illegal activity. Far from it. What I Read more…
This is the era of anxiety. In an era with no major wars, major poverty, major environmental destruction, or seemingly major negative events, humanity (at least in the Internet connected Western world) seeks to gaze in wonder at its own navel. This is the era of anxiety. If the thesis Read more…
“My mind is made up.” Well…ok then. Your mindset, your framing of the world and the way that it’s ‘supposed’ to work, your story that you tell yourself about your conflicts, disputes, and differences of opinion, can be changed. Unlike in the old Ten Commandments movie from back in the Read more…
Stories come from mental models, or frames. Many stories are so deeply felt, so deeply ideated, that they transform in conflicts from mental models and frames into marks of identity. And then you’re not having a conflict where someone else’s narrative is driving the conflict. You’re having a conflict with Read more…
Quality and quantity. These are two ideas that have long combated each other at scale in a variety of contexts and containers. From mediation processes and practices to industrialized object making, quantity very often takes a back seat to quality in both the consideration of the creator and the consumer. Read more…
There are two paradigms that are rubbing against each other, creating friction in economies, lives, employment choices, and even in personal lives: The first paradigm is that of productivity. The type of productivity where an employee does “more with less,” where people are forced to shave the personal and the Read more…
Building a business…while black… Writing…while black… Driving…while black… Tweeting…while black… Parenting…while black… Doing physics…while black… Banking…while black… Teaching…while black… All of these are stories about identity. The problem is, where the emphasis is in my story may not match where the emphasis is in your story, for me. And since Read more…
Resolution is a loaded word. Typically, we want conflicts, disagreements, “differences of opinion,” and other ways that we frame the dialogue of conflict, to work out in ways that work for us. Ways that allow us to accomplish our goals in the most expedient manner possible, and the other party—well Read more…