Keeping the Peace

“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. “
Jonathan Kozol: On Being a Teacher, 1981
Truthfully I do not know if I completely agree with the above quote, I bring it to you anyway because part of me thinks, ‘well this makes sense, I want to pick battles I can win’; but part of [...]

You have worked side-by-side with your team for quite some time and the good news is that it has been truly enjoyable. You get along, you work hard together and you laugh hard together. Lucky you, this might even be an example of a high performing team. You assumed it was because you had so [...]

I remember it like it was yesterday. I still remember this supervisor looking at me and yelling, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WOULD NOT CHOOSE THE MINISTER?”
Ok, Ok – this is a pretty old memory (from the late 1980’s), so it could be that I don’t have the details quite right. Maybe she did not [...]

Consider the following scenario:
A valuable team member feels very passionately about a specific risk to your project. You agree that it might be a risk, but you don’t think it is likely to happen or if it does happen, you don’t think it will have a significant impact on your project. What do you?
The above [...]

“To observe people in conflict is a necessary part of a child’s education. It helps him to understand and accept his own occasional hostilities and to realize that differing opinions need not imply an absence of love.” … Milton R Sapirstein
When children can see others disagree and disagree with respect and they see that nothing [...]