Blogs
You will find useful articles on conflict-related topics.
Reflecting back emotions – questioning some assumptions
One of the core techniques we are taught as mediators and coaches is that when a person expresses their emotions (either directly or indirectly) we should “reflect them back”. Reflecting back a person’s emotions is supposedly helpful for showing that you understand how the person is feeling, validating the person’s emotional response, building rapport, demonstrating
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: The Power of Regret by Daniel H. Pink
Regret. We’ve all experienced it. It’s not what you’d call a pleasant emotion. It also tends to promote rumination and going over and over what we wished we had done differently. This is a similar process of counterfactual thinking that is common with other emotions such as guilt and shame. For people who work in
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Emotional Success by David DeSteno
As I was researching for our new Working With Emotions in Conflict online course, DeSteno’s name kept coming up in relation to the importance of emotions, and especially social emotions, for success. David DeSteno writes a lot on the concept of intertemporal choice (I wrote about this concept in conflict in one of my LinkedIn
Promoting hope in conflict
Many people think about hope as an emotion that is akin to faith or wishful thinking. However, hope theorists such as Snyder describe hope as a way of thinking. The best thing about approaching hope in this way, is that it becomes something that we can learn (and support others to develop). For our purposes,
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: The Future of Coaching by Hetty Einzig
This book includes a collection of very thoughtful essays that challenge us to think beyond coaching as a tool to improve performance within existing outdated, dysfunctional and even toxic systems. Einzig asks: Should the role of the coach evolve? What is the role of coaching today? Can coaches support leaders to transform the rules of
Intertemporal choice, emotions, and conflict
What is intertemporal choice? You may not have heard the term “intertemporal choice” but I’m sure you all experience it often. Intertemporal choice (DeSteno, 2009) is a situation in which decisions hold different consequences as time unfolds. Here’s an example using the impact of anger in a negotiation: If we are in a negotiation, and
