If, in preparing for a negotiation, you view it as a battlefield, you might want to look at your mindset. The way we see it, gone are the olden days when win/lose negotiation strategies might have had some merit. In…
Author: Common Outlook Consulting Inc.
Grown-up Lego (a.k.a. Relationship Management)
Relationships, whether at work or at home, are built action by interaction, in much the way kids build structures out of Lego. Yet many of us treat those interactions as transactions… as finite moments or happenings that have no bearing…
Infomania* – How to Clear the Mind
One of life’s great pleasures is to crack open a book by a well-known author, and find it not only meets, but surpasses one’s expectations. So is the case with Daniel Levitin’s The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age…
Are You Present? Or Are You Digitally Absent?
Digital devices like Smartphones can be a boon if you have a teen/daycare/babysitter you need to stay in touch with, or colleagues who you need to touch base briefly with about something. But apart from specific times and occasions, staying…
Appreciating Conflict
All meaningful relationships, whether at work or at home, have conflicts. The conflicts may be ongoing; they may come in short bursts; they may be separated by long interludes of harmony; but if those connections are to continue to be…
Managing Tribe-based Conflict
At its core, a tribe is held together by the need for safety and well-being. Individually, each member has the same need… it’s what draws us to this or that group. Adolescents feel the pull most keenly, for they are…
Managing Identity-based Conflict
Success. Failure. Triumph. Defeat. Good days. Bad days. Compliments. Insults. All of these (and more) can trigger our identity - our sense of who we are - and before we know it, we can find ourselves in an identity-based conflict;…
Resolving Emotional Conflicts
Emotional conflicts. Wouldn’t life be easier without them? Yes, probably. But it would also be less real. After all, we are people, not machines. Time and again we at Common Outlook remind clients (and ourselves) that any organization is nothing…
Three Common Workplace Conflicts
Conflict is a word that often makes people uncomfortable. Indeed, many would agree with the assertion: “Conflict is bad”. Our view is different. We say that conflict is not inherently good or bad; it just “is”. Conflict is a normal…
Choose a Leadership Expert
This month, we feature – ever so briefly – five top leadership experts in the English-speaking world. Each holds their own against the others in spite of very different methodologies and philosophies. In other words, there’s no right or wrong…