Recent BI and Substack Posts

Exchange and respect are more powerful than force--they persuade without causing backlash.

The demand for total victory is a recipe for continuing and deepening strife--co-existence is essential for peace.

Most of us are so enmeshed in our own worldviews that we don't consider that we might be wrong. It helps to listen to outsiders and consider that possibility.

Empathic listening is amazingly powerful--sometimes that is all that is needed to defuse destructive conflicts.

Incivility begets more of the same, while civil discourse can help de-escalate conflict and improve relationships.

No one likes to be humiliated--allowing your opponent to save face will help defuse a conflict.

Attacking people makes them angry. Enlisting their help to solve a mutual problem is more likely to work as hoped.

Conflict is created by everyone--it becomes better or worse depending on what all of us do.

Heidi Burgess and Nealin Parker talk about how Search for Common Ground is adapting its pathbreaking international peacebuilding work to healing divides in the United States.

Intractable conflict is preventing us from solving any of our most pressing problems. We must learn how to deal with it constructively!

While we have much to learn, there is also much we know about addressing complexity and intractability.

Western democracies are being widely threatened--we must understand how to be able to respond effectively.

We ALL need a much better understanding of how we can confront conflicts constructively.

We can't just do more of the same, but better, with intractable conflicts. We need a complexity-based approach.

When conflicts REALLY matter, it is particularly important that one uses the best possible conflict engagement strategies.

It is up to each and every one of us to stop conflict from destroying the things that matter to us most. Learn how!

An exercise to help people find common ground where none seems to exist and constructively address remaining differences.

A short explanation of why intractable conflict is an unrecognized "existential threat" and what to do about that.

While a huge undertaking, similar efforts have succeeded before. MPP can too!

Help us hone the Constructive Statement and plan next steps! Join the discussion!

The fourth in a series of posts on de-escalation, here we look at de-escalating gestures, breaking stereotypes, trust earning and confidence building, respect, face, and using the optimal "power strategy mix."