The age of weaponized propaganda that we’re lucky enough to be living through obviously isn’t going anywhere soon. It’s proven effective for nefarious actors bent on manipulating public opinion to get what they want. I’m not talking about the infotainment media darlings, influencers, and outlets that are so untrustworthy that ...
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Oscar Wilde supposedly said, “Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.” Those of us in the engagement and consensus business deal with tough people and situations for a living. Most regular human beings get to carry grudges all the way to their gastroenterologist’s office; we don’t have that ...
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My political science professor said on our first day in her class that politics is simply an alternative to violence. That stuck with me for decades and came roaring back to mind one January 6th. Nearly four years later, America has voted against politics. In a more recent ...
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We’re on the cusp of the most consequential U.S. presidential election of our lifetimes. It’s hard to comprehend how we’ve possibly come to the ridiculous but clear choice that we’ll make in November. But the question is obvious: will we live in an uglier, hotter, meaner, dirtier, less healthy, less ...
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There’s a human trait that all of us have to some degree, with the exception of people with antisocial personality disorder – socio- and psychopaths – but we don’t often recognize that it’s a trait that needs to be nurtured and developed. Empathy is embedded in us and one of ...
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Helping people understand new information, as we suggested in the opening of this newsletter, requires getting them to first just consider what you’re trying to convey to them. At a time when all of us are bombarded with online and traditional media constantly competing for our attention, getting people’s attention ...
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Nobody put it more eloquently than Sly and the Family Stone: people are different. (Feel free to substitute your own adjectives; just try to keep it clean.) We communicate in different styles and when we’re agitated, concerned, scared or pissed off, people can adopt refreshingly new styles which might ...
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For news junkies like me, these are the times that try (wo)men’s souls. We’re at the height of the most contentious political campaign of our lives and the news business is in a ratings, readership and ad revenue frenzy. Because of the unprecedented level of lies and propaganda routinely ...
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Neither I nor my partners have ever claimed to be mediators in a formal and legal sense, although we do routinely facilitate multi-party mediation for projects. We teach and coach this work as well as doing it, so professional development is always at the top of mind for us, and ...
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Research done for several of the past years has shown a general demise in empathy. There’s no clear answer to why, but it may have something to do with the adage that says, hurt people hurt people, and a lot of people feel hurt. We’ve had a few moments ...
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