Sublime

often all it takes to break an impasse is to seek to understand others’ views.

It is the presentation of strategies in clear, present, positive action language that moves conflicts toward resolution.

If we cannot learn to engage in productive, ideological conflict during meetings, we are through.”

said, “Conflict is just an opportunity for another person’s education,” for exploring why people think the way they do, and for sharing perspectives so the parties to the conflict can learn about and from each other.

He mastered defense matters, read up the classics on strategy, Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, and Liddell Hart. He subscribed to military journals to know the latest in military weaponry. He sent me books and articles, sidelined and flagged, insisting that I must know enough to decide what I had to approve.

Seven Steps to Orchestrating Conflict

Once you’ve identified the opposition, stay close to them, spend time with them, ask for their input on your initiative, listen closely to their reality (especially where it differs from yours),

Henry and Ginny wanted to bring the elite—including the shadow elite—into a room and run a scenario planning exercise on the future of Yemen.13 The elite would then see the implications of what they were doing to the country, and this insight would cause them to act proactively in the interests of the whole.

a central aspect of what is really going on in chapter 2 is the creation of a holding environment, or what Heifetz describes simply as a “container,” designed to serve a process of significant transformation—adaptive work.