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You Are Here – The Maps of Conflict Resolution

7/23/2011

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I recently watched a TV show on the History channel called American Pickers. It’s about two guys that drive around looking for old junk, or rather what they call “rusty gold.” When they find an antique they think they can resell for a profit, they begin negotiating for a price. And as suspected, they want to pay less than the seller wants to sell for. You could call this a conflict. This is where the negotiating begins, to understand why someone places a different value on something from the value you place on it. It would be easy to start saying things like “you are being greedy” or “you are being cheap.” Or it could get even more personal with attacks like “you are a thief” or “you are a pig-headed…”, well you get the idea.

But instead of saying what someone is being like, or worse, saying what you think they are, they use a language that describes “where” they are. Instead of visualizing themselves as enemies, they visualize where they both are on the same map. So you hear a negotiation that sounds something like: “you are at $35 and I am at $25.” When they can both see where they are on a common map, it helps them find a way to meet in the middle. Is there something here that leaders can learn from pickers?

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What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody’s Cognitive Toolkit?

1/25/2011

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Every year, the Edge Organization (http://edge.org/) asks a provocative question, and this year is no exception. But this year, I have an answer. I believe everybody’s cognitive toolkit would improve with the realization of one concept (in four parts):
1a. Everything known comes from an explanation
1b. Explanations have common parts and patterns
1c. The mind’s explanation patterns are misaligned with the processes of the world’s institutions
1d. We find the solution to this problem within the book: The Explanation Age

Picture this. If I ask you a question related to "where" - you would show me a map. Or if I ask you a question related to "when" - you would show me a calendar. But if I ask you a question related to "why" - now what tool do we expect everybody to pull out of their back pocket? None right now, living in the Information Age, but that will change in the Explanation Age.

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