We’ve talked in the past about the importance and differences between sympathy and empathy, particularly when dealing with emotional, resistant, or angry people. There’s a third component that plays into dealing with these tough situations and as public policy proponents and facilitators, we need to be emotionally intelligent enough ...
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You’re doing stressful work with stressed out people in an especially stressful time. Did I mention that we’re all stressed? I’m not trying to diminish the real challenge that many people are facing these days, but doing the work that you do is important and not for the faint hearted. ...
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One of the biggest challenges of our time is convincing people that it’s a good idea to keep themselves and each other alive. Sounds ridiculous to say that, doesn’t it? But engaging and influencing people to do what’s in their best interest is often the task of professionals working in ...
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People who are engaged in the practice of public engagement come to it from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives – communication, the sciences, community planning, engineering, sometimes politics – but those that are most successful almost always have one universal trait in common: the ability to truly empathize. If for ...
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As people become more polarized and it gets increasingly difficult to have or facilitate ugly conversations, we as the potential peacemakers have to tune in better to how we manage ourselves and respond to these encounters. This is a simple little technique that I learned some time ago and have ...
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For the longest time, the work that we do has been referred to as “soft” and I have to admit that’s always bugged me. Describing it this way sounds demeaning, and sometimes I know it’s intended to do so. The underlying attitude is that these soft skills aren’t really important ...
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In the 1950s, thousands of people died annually and tens of thousands were paralyzed by polio. People celebrated and embraced the science that developed the vaccine that quickly eradicated that disease in the U.S. But COVID-19 has produced an entirely different public reaction and health policy experts are wrestling with ...
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Our Strategies for Dealing with Opposition and Outrage in Public Participation (we really need to shorten that name) class describes the indicators that cause people to become angry and fearful. Knowing the causes lets you deal with the effects. It also explains the behaviors that people who work with the ...
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One of the behavioral strategies that we talk about to help angry people become less angry and to rebuild trust is hard and counterintuitive for most experts but truly effective. It’s called dilemma sharing. Bring people in to see the challenges that you’re facing before you try to solve them....
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Although I consider myself quite expert when it comes to bars, sidebars are different. This article is related to the previous piece about why relying solely on Zoom meetings and online encounters don’t make for the most useful relationships.
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