I don’t very often talk about specific people in my articles, but this time it seemed appropriate as a colleague of mine, who we’re calling J.D. (Jane Doe), told me the following story about her close friend and neighbour. For…
Author: Common Outlook Consulting Inc.
Adversity: Dark Foe/Bright Friend
Adversity will blindside you; jump you from behind; take you by surprise, but it isn’t a bully. It isn’t something you can punch once to make it back down… to make it go away. Instead, it’s a tough and wily…
Negotiating So Everyone Wins
You may not think of yourself as a negotiator, but indeed, you are. For as Jean Chrétien says in the foreword to David Dingwall’s new book, Negotiating So Everyone Wins, “…everything in public life, the private sector and even personal…
Easy Rationalizations & Harder Truths
Our days are full of rationalizations1… indeed, we are an extremely adept species at being able to dance around the real reasons behind our decisions and behaviours, and highly skilled at making them appear reasonable, justified, and even laudable. Small…
Changing a Rationale and Line of Thinking
One of the hardest things for us to do in business, or in any part of life for that matter, is to question or change an underlying opinion or rationale. After all, if we’ve thought carefully about our ideas, reasonings,…
What’s So Great about Being Rational?
The ancient Greeks lauded the idea of rational thinking (logos), and deemed thoughts and behaviours based on emotions as irrational and sources of false assumptions and statements. Oh, if only thinking and emotion and behaviour could be so neatly tri-sected.…
Windows of insight
‘Windows of insight’ occur in various situations and settings. Sometimes we gain insights during the throes of a conflict or as a result of coaching (from a professional coach or a friend) or with the assistance of a trained therapist.…
Night Vision Goggles
Welcome to the first article in our Night Vision series, where we explore the drivers behind human behaviour to help explain what goes on in organizations. Let us begin with the grounding principles underlying this journey: Four Premises: Rationality is…
A Quick Look Back to See the Road Ahead
In this article, rather than give you our information or opinions about something, we have once again chosen to ask you a series of questions to help you learn from your own experience. We hope they are useful for you.…
An After-the-Fact Assessment Tool Designed to Turn You into a Better Negotiator
Assessing the Planning Stage After the Fact In hindsight, did you fully consider the strengths of the approach you planned to take and its weak spots? Did you also consider the strengths and weaknesses of the other person's approach? Did…
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