By Bruce MacAllister and Diana Mosonyi By Bruce MacAllister and Diana Mosonyi Today’s global environment seems hectic and unpredictable. As we emerge from our self-imposed seclusion and re-enter the wider world, trust an essential element. Many recent events demonstrate that an essential element of social engagement is trust. For a society to function, trust at…
The organizational ombudsman model has been widely embraced for many years by colleges, universities, and progressive corporations as an important resource to ensure that students and employees have a neutral, confidential, informal resource available to assist when issues or conflict arise. In these times of crisis and change, the ombuds resource becomes an even more…
In these strange and challenging times, many mediation and ombudsman programs are having to make the switch to working virtually with visitors using a variety of web-based and telephone-based meeting approaches. While much of my mediation and ombuds work has been based out of “brick and mortar” programs, since 2011, much of my work has also…
This post’s topic is the idea of dualities and understanding how we tend to frame our thinking based on our collective experience and our own personal enculturation. I recently prepared a talk for an upcoming presentation to a group of graduate business students at a large university on the power of framing and setting the frame…
Thoughts on the Tao of Communication Events in my daily life often inspire the focus of my blog posts. I apologize to those of you readers who like a linear structure to the topics. Sometimes I wander afield for a post or two, based on something that inspires a slightly different focus. So, breaking from…
Tip Nine – Continued – Managing Tactics When Necessary In our last several posts, we’ve been discussing tactics. In my first post on the subject, I explained that, even though tactics can pose a challenge to your progress towards your objective, they also provide you with important information about the concerns of those who are…
Summary of Blog Articles for 2013 This year we have worked to strike a healthy balance between providing flawless service to our clients while also keeping our blog post current and interesting. In case you have missed some of our articles this year, here is a listing of the posts that we prepared for you…
Ten Axioms of Change Management In my work, it seems that organizations are encountering major change issues more and more frequently. In my work with organizations facing change issues, it seems that I am asked to work with change situations in two very different circumstances. Some organizations that are planning change such as those that…
Tip Eight – Appreciate the Power of Word Choice Combined with Non-Verbal Cues By now it should be clear to those of you who have been following the posts on the Tips for Effective Communication, that effective communication involves more than just clear speaking. As my posts to this topic have illustrated, effective communication is…
C3 – Conflict Conscious Communication For some time now, many of my blog posts have focused the features of effective communication. I’ve been systematically sharing “tips on improving your communication” when it involves an important issue or someone important to you, such as a boss or someone that you need to connect with positively. This…