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…
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…
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…
Some of the things that I am about to express today may offend you. Some of the things that I am about to express may not apply to you. But either way, they are statements, ideas, and conclusions, that have not been discussed enough lately in the discourse that has been permeating our Read more…
Access to the means of production in an increasingly computerized global economy is THE social justice issue of our time if indeed the computers ate—and will continue to eat—all of our jobs. There is an issue with the fact that rural areas in the United States (and worldwide) have limited Read more…
As individuals continue to publicly engage in the completion of their own narrative arcs of conflict, personalized and individualized to them, external third parties have to determine at what point is it wiser to shut down their self-determination and deny their autonomy. Self-determination basically says that parties in a conflict Read more…
Understanding where people’s conflict responses are in their quadrants and where they position conflict messages in their brains, are critically important to consider. Particularly as you develop key performance indicators as you start resolving conflicts in your organization, differently than you have been before. If a person prefers an avoidance Read more…
Show them what you’re made of. Why would you do that? The ultimate call to escalation, ego, and more conflict, comes first in the call, then the attempt, and at the end, either the success (they saw what you were made of—and backed off) or failure (they saw what you Read more…
There is knowing the path toward peace, and there is having the courage to follow the path. Many people know what they ought to do (or should do) but refuse to do it, mostly due to the influence of fears. Many people know what they ought to do (or should Read more…