Greetings! I wonder about a lot of things; not only about who … who, who wrote the book of love, but whether or not Gerry and the Pacemakers now all have actual pacemakers. I’ve also wondered if, and how, levels of trust differ between older and younger people, and we’ve found some answers. I’m writing this from… read more →
Roger Schank is a cognitive scientist who said, “Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” The days of experts delivering data and facts to educate and motivate people are over. We love stories because we’re able to inject ourselves into them, we relate to what we’re hearing… read more →
Once again, the following article feels like it focuses on internal business problems, but the fact is that it works in just about any kind of issue. Whether you’re working with difficult people in your office or facilitating a public meeting full of upset people, many of the principles are the same. Read More …
This is a story about water allocation in Saskatchewan. Unless you happen to be a water policy geek, this probably sounds like a snoozer, but bear with me. This is actually a story about empathy and a lesson learned from a seemingly unlikely source. Creativity, adaptability, persuasion and empathy are (currently) beyond the capabilities of… read more →
My colleagues and I have the privilege of working with lots of smart people and over the years we’ve seen inevitable changes supported by new research that shows we’re slowly losing some innate and critically important abilities. Interpersonal communication skills are waning in people who have been focused on pure science, technology or some other… read more →
Politics has always been and may always be a blood sport with one goal: win, to gain and keep power. And I’m not suggesting that’s necessarily bad, you’ve got to get the job to do the job, but it’s different than governing which, in a democracy, usually means working for the greater good. We try… read more →
Greetings! Perhaps you’ve noticed the change in our new and improved, 100% organic, zero-calorie, gluten-free newsletter. It also now provides 13 essential vitamins and minerals. Okay, okay … we just reckoned it was due for a wash and wax … hope you like it. Stay curious, Godec How We’re Being Schooled Politics has always been… read more →
Dear Valued Associate, At a time and in a world that seems filled with vultures and thieves, it shouldn’t be surprising that Complicit is Dictionary.com’s word of the year. People should be concerned – and people need to stay involved, especially when just ‘checking out’ feels like the better thing to do. Our democratic survival and sanity requires… read more →
Dear Valued Associate, Imagine how it would feel if people actually appreciated the work that you do. Can you picture what it would be like to get up every morning and head off to work knowing that citizens respected your organization and its mission, your profession and expertise, and the effort that you put into public… read more →
Dictionary definitions of conflict vary with the dictionary, some including references to war to others that reference the more mundane incompatibility. Conflict resolution and dispute resolution are often used interchangeably, but disputes are more typically defined as something a little less serious than conflicts, or at least something that’s more short term and more easily… read more →