Three points need to be emphasized at the beginning of any training, workshop, or seminar. Your way of thinking about conflict, communication, and persuasion must shift before anything else can happen. Your way of consuming information, your attention span, and your level of caring about the content you are about Read more…
The reason why talk of biases (implicit and otherwise) doesn’t connect with audiences listening for tips on how to manage conflict, is that the audience already knows that they’re biased. And they’re fine with it. The challenge is not to harangue them until they give in and admit that biases Read more…
The deep revelation of the revolution called the Internet, is that it continues to demonstrate that networks are the most valuable resource that an individual, a corporation, or a government possesses in order to leverage innovation, change, and advancement. Of course, during the height of the Industrial Revolution last century, Read more…
The fact of the matter is, organizations get the conflict culture that they hire for. If organizations hire for avoidance, they get that. If organizations hire for aggressiveness, they get that. But so many organizations don’t consider conflict culture. That is, until they are in litigation, mediation, or negotiation, over Read more…
The top six questions for leaders (or aspiring leaders) at work, are as follows: Who is responsible for the organizational culture at work? You, or your boss? Who is responsible for the conflict culture at work? You, or your boss? Who is responsible for the innovation at work? You, or Read more…
“If I were you…” is the worst beginning to providing feedback to anyone. The statement merely says, if the person giving the feedback were the person receiving the feedback then this is what the feedback would be. This is a poorly considered bit of critical shorthand, because if the person Read more…
Human interactions, impacted and shaped by the economic, political, and social effects of the Industrial Revolution, used to highly value—and continue to reward—the skills of the chameleon. You know the chameleon at work. This is the person at a meeting who, when a person says “This is clearly black in Read more…
When you understand the nature of a thing, it becomes simple to predict an outcome. When you understand the nature of a conflict, it becomes simple to manage it. Simple, but not easy. We confuse the simple with the easy because we desire to attain outcomes that “work” for us Read more…
When in economic development conversations with government officials, investors, and concerned community members, the tension is always revealed at a certain point in the dialogue. Usually it comes in the form of either (or both) of the assertions below: In the past, one person (typically a politician, or group of Read more…
Transparency means different things to different people. Some people believe that transparency means establishing, maintaining, and growing connection to another person. Some people believe that transparency means collaboration with another person or with a group of people. Some people believe that transparency means authenticity, a species of “being real” or Read more…