A large part of negative escalation is the insistence on advocating for a perspective, not with courage, but with obstinance. The moment of truth is revealed when, through such negative escalation, we become trapped in a paradigm of our own making, between the relationship we have with reality through our Read more…
The trouble with most conversation that leads to conflict isn’t that it’s earth shattering or amazing, but that it’s banal and boring. This is one of the many reason why there will always be more online content consumers than online content creators. It is hard to be interesting to others Read more…
It’s always interesting to watch people’s faces when I talk about exploring the efficacy of attaching market value to emotional interactions. At first they are confused, as if I’m talking about emotional intelligence. Sometimes, if they get it right off the bat, they are downright hostile. Occasionally, the person will Read more…
Most of the time, in a conflict management scenario, escalation of any kind is viewed as a net negative. Most trainings—whether corporate, academic, online or in-person—focus on teaching techniques and tactics that will bring the other party from a less defensive emotional position to a more collaborative emotional position. These Read more…
14 years ago today, out of a sunny blue sky, two planes hit the towers at the World Trade Center. Since then, the United States has fought two wars—Iraq and Afghanistan—and, as of this writing, a third war might be ramping up to start against Syria. When an event of Read more…
The very thing that you can’t predict happening in a conflict scenario has a high likelihood of actually happening in a conflict scenario. The other party buckles; or doesn’t. The other party makes concessions; or doesn’t; or makes so few as to be insulting. The other party bargains in good Read more…
[Podcast] Earbud_U, Season Two, Episode #4 – Yvette Durazo, Conflict Engagement Practitioner, Teacher, Ontological Bi-Lingual Coach, Onion Peeler, Fence Destroyer [powerpress] Time zones are tricky things to navigate. First, we’ve gotta do the math in our heads, and figure out how far back or forward a person (or organization) Read more…
What we don’t teach our children in school for eight hours a day would be classified as child abuse, if we actually believed that the nature of the world of work has changed for adults. But, we don’t. The world of work is a place where adults are thrown together Read more…
Whenever I get together with people in a social setting, they ask, “What do you do for a living?” And I tell them. Their very next response, depending upon their educational background, is “Oh yeah, I took some organizational development classes when I was in school. They were the best Read more…
There’s a lot of political commentary floating around about the perils of income inequality. This issue—which can lead to conflicts—is mask for a much larger, more pervasive, and more pernicious kind of inequality though. And this conversation masks discussing the core question, buried deep inside the second type of inequality. Here’s Read more…