Some of our clients’ problems seem hopeless, with consensus among the varying parties feeling inconceivable. But we’ve found, over time, that getting the parties together creates the atmosphere where much is possible....
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Our courses on outrage spend time differentiating among true outrage, self interest and ego. Ego is one monster requiring special care. Here’s one mediator’s solution....
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A lot of government’s face time with the public often involves making presentations to groups in semi-formal public meeting settings. If the issue in question is not very controversial and the agency has earned and nurtured a level of trust with their public audience, there’s a good chance that people ...
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Sincere apology is a necessary part of dealing with emotional people when those people have been wronged. How do you think Kevin Johnson did?...
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| I was talking to ALEXA the other night and we were discussing the fact that the subtlety and effectiveness between almost the right word and exactly the right word can make or break any encounter between two people or between a facilitator (or presenter) and a large group. Are you |
Public speaking (glossophobia) is a source of high anxiety for most people – it’s our biggest social fear. So, when people are thrown into scary situations, they’ll typically hide in their more comfortable ‘expert’ zone and end up sounding like a robot reciting technical data. That, of course, sounds incomprehensible ...
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For a while now, it’s seemed clear that public participation is under assault at the highest levels of U.S. government. Functioning democracies share power with the governed. Of course there are arguments that politicians are obligated to wield their power on behalf of the people who elected them, therefore public ...
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And by you I mean we – we’re all human, different, and irrational sometimes. And most of the time we have to operate in a (alleged) rational, objective, fact-based world. The world of our humanness and the world of reason frequently clash, which can make it tough to work with ...
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The ‘Outrage’ course that we teach explains attributes that cause people to be more or less angry, fearful or trusting of you and your organization. One is whether or not people deal with individuals or institutions that actually respond to them. If you’ve tried lately to find a real human ...
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The world and working in it will continue to evolve at an astonishing pace with technology growth and artificial intelligence (AI). Oxford economics says that 47% of today’s jobs will be gone in 10 years. And that means that essential skills – empathy, communication, speaking, decision-making and good judgement – will ...
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