Sorry Doesn’t Have To Be the Hardest Word
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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Conflict Resolution
Facilitative Mediation Part Two: What Does a Facilitator Do with Emotions
John Godec was asked to be part of the IAP2 webinar training on the topics of facilitative mediation, emotions and outrage. He talks about what a facilitator does to deal with people’s emotions. Since this training was for a sold out group of members, we thought that you would benefit ...
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Facilitative Mediation and the Emotional State: Webinar with John Godec
Recently, John Godec was asked to be part of the IAP2 webinar training. It was his great honor to present facilitative mediation, emotions and outrage to a sold out group of members.
Since it was a sold out group and a dynamic discussion, we thought that you, our dear reader, ...
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People Power
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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The Facilitator Role: Speaking Truth to Power
Power Balance Requires a Facilitator Role
The subject of Power is so vast that it’s hard to tackle from any angle. Power is the warp and weft in the tapestry of human history. Power grabs, power imbalances, abuses of power, struggles against power. The subject is just as ubiquitous today ...
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Reach Out and Touch Someone to Find Collaborative Solutions
OK, so this may not be the most politically correct headline for a blog today, but I will stand by it. For over 20 years, before cell phones made the effort moot, Ma Bell and later AT&T used this slogan to get people to call long distance. It turns out ...
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Opinions are Like Belly Buttons, Everybody Has One
I prefer the cruder version of the above headline but hey, it’s Christmas time. We all know people who have opinions about everything, regardless of whether or not they actually know anything about it. Don’t be one of them....
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Dispute Resolution, Conflict Resolution – Tomato, Tomato
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 ...
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Crisis Management. Really?
Back in one of my previous lives (working for a Fortune 50 company), most of my job was managing a variety of the inadvertent kinds of problems that negatively affected the business, or the variety of other issues brought on by dumb manager decisions and things that people in the ...
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Real Public Communications Requires Listening
Whether you are engaging in basic public communications or crisis management activities, simple facilitation or consensus building on a complex topic, there is one skill that we all need at all times: The ability to listen. If you have watched any of the recent town hall meetings on TV, you ...
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