What’s going to be on the test? Is this going to work out? What can we get here? Who benefits? All questions that revolve around what is commonly known as resolution. Some in psychology call it closure, but really it’s the mental and emotional process of getting a definitive answer Read more…
There are non-negotiable issues in a conflict. But a lot of those issues are determined to be non-negotiable by the parties involved in the conflict. If a party decides that their emotions are the only driver that matters, and that they aren’t going to put those emotions away, for the Read more…
The first sentence in a discussion anchors the rest of the conversation. “I need him to shut up.” “I don’t like what’s happening here.” “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” “The fact that we’re focusing on this issue is crazy.” “They don’t know what they are talking about.” “Who’s Read more…
Conflict is the process of change. No great change—not one—happens without conflict. The key is not to fear conflict (which many of us do) but to manage it. Many people are afraid in times of great change because they aren’t offered a vision for what the change will bring, nor Read more…
There’s truth. There’s reconciliation. Rarely do you get both of them together. This isn’t to say that parties seeking reconciliation are engaging in deceitful behavior or lying to gain an outcome that benefits them in a conflict process. But we are all selfish and no more so than when we Read more…
It is easy to dismiss ideas that we don’t agree with, that we find to be repulsive, or that downright offend us. It is easy to dismiss ideas that we believe are damaging, could lead to cycles of violence, or that we believe are fearful. It is easy to dismiss Read more…
The skills required to facilitate training for an audience with content that wasn’t developed by the facilitator, are the same skills sale people practice every day: Persuasion: Since a facilitator doesn’t create the presentation content (or product) they are facilitating (just like the sales person doesn’t create the product they 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…
Technology changes are comparatively easy to predict. The computer. The fax machine. The interstellar rocket. The airplane. The cell phone. The drones. The lie detector. The biometric scan. The electric car. The driverless car. The internet. These are just some of the technologies that were developed, conceived, proposed, or prototyped Read more…
As many events become revealed that were once hidden; as information becomes freer and freer, and as people have more access to more entertainment, distraction, and dopamine hits via the communication objects in our pockets, audiences need three things now: Wisdom: There is a dearth of wisdom. You can’t get Read more…