The ultimate purpose of managing interpersonal conflict is to grow us emotionally in self-awareness, storytelling, emotional management, and moral and ethical character. There aren’t any apps, searches, or other fancy technological shortcuts for the development of those traits in us.
Making noise, making a point, and making a difference are different actions. Where we run into trouble is when we conflate the results of all three and then use those results (and that conflation) to determine what our story will be to the market. Telling a story to the market Read more…
The deepest dive you can do is into yourself. If you want to find the resistance to changes that need to be made in your organization, it starts with you. If you want to discover why other people aren’t resonating with your story, it starts with you. If you want Read more…
It appears that the large conflict situations in life are the ones that matter the most. Death Divorce Job loss Personal and professional disappointments But the reality is, the small moments that appear to matter the least, are the ones that create the grit and resilience to survive the crucible Read more…
The uncomfortable truth is that an understanding and appreciation of the impact of human emotions is required to address the conflicts of the present day. The comfortable fairy tale is that everywhere human beings are freed from the impact of their emotions by more economic choices, more scientific knowledge, and Read more…
The world inside rules the world outside. One of the terrible functions of the last half-century has been the rise in the perception of people, both at the individual level and at the group level, as purely economic actors. When viewed this way, people’s reactions and behaviors (and even group Read more…
Avoiding what we are allergic to is good sense when we are talking about preserving the long-term health of our physical bodies. Avoiding what we are allergic to is not good sense when we are talking about preserving the long-term health of habits we have acquired that no longer are Read more…
Organizations, founders, managers, and employees who are self-aware do better than those who aren’t. This should come as no surprise, but in an economic, social, and even political climate where “knowing thyself” is as mysterious as “knowing thy customers,” it becomes incumbent upon an organization–and the people employed by it–to Read more…
When the emotional labor of addressing a dispute with a customer, a client, a co-worker, or a boss, is the work we don’t want to do, we revert to doing the work that makes us the most comfortable. This is usually the task that we were hired to do in 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…