Conflict is part of the human exerience – it’s baked into our DNA – and lasting solutions require resolving conflict. Here you can read the best information on conflict resolution strategies, hand curated by our experts and trainers in public solutions. People don’t always agree, and resolving those disagreements is key to what we do in public participation. Resolving conflicts takes a lot of “soft skills,” more so than just facts. Data rarely changes someone’s mind. To do that you need humility, respect, authenticity and transparency, qualities that are necessary in dealing with the public for your government, organization, or business. These are the newsworthy articles that we have found contribute to this conversation on conflict resolution. Enjoy, dear reader.
There are lots of textbook causes for conflict, but one of the root reasons that I run into has to do with some kind of power imbalance. People will almost always rebel (or try to) if they feel they’re being oppressed by people with more power. The art and science ...
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Similar to the benefit of expressing some humility is the benefit of not sounding like you know it all. When experts are dealing with concerned, anxious people, it often feels like the more answers the experts can produce, the more confident and convinced those nervous people will be. But the ...
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We work with clients who are expert in their respective fields, and they’re understandably confident in what they know. But in this new age of anti-science and the demonization of expertise, that confidence is often mistaken for arrogance by an angry, skeptical public. When experts need to establish themselves as ...
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We work with clients who are expert in their respective fields, and they’re understandably confident in what they know. But in this new age of anti-science and the demonization of expertise, that confidence is often mistaken for arrogance by an angry, skeptical public. When experts need to establish themselves as ...
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The Facebook page titled ‘Stop Mandatory Vaccinations’ has more than 140,000 followers. These are people who may have meant well in trying to learn what’s best for their children, but have reached dangerous conclusions that put other children at serious and unnecessary risk. Social connections – meaning social media, trust, ...
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Marketers play on our emotions and sensibilities. People who choose to go out of their way to buy free range eggs do so because at some inner emotional level they can picture that proud, independent chicken majestically loping across the wide open prairie under azure skies with a big happy ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Let’s get to the point: truth and reason are frequently losing. Your measured evaluation, research and reams of data presented in an objective way to an increasingly skeptical and mostly disinterested public, intended to appeal to their logic and common good, is competing with a steady diet of electronic and ...
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Working with people and serving the public good isn’t for the faint of heart, especially these days; it takes true grit. That sounds like a funny description for what many people consider to be a soft skill, but it’s most certainly the case. Frankly, it’s easy to become discouraged when ...
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