Feeling a little off today? Or maybe you’re having a great day. Either way, for a simple game, enter your mood at Wild Mood Swings and an appropriate website will come up, depending on which mood you’ve selected. Give it a try– just know that, like Stumbleupon, which I wrote about last week, it’s a little addictive (but aren’t most games?)!
I’m reviewing The Negotiator’s Fieldbook: The Desk Reference for the Experienced Negotiator, Christopher Honeyman & Andrea Kupfer Schneider, Editors (ABA 2006), through the rest of 2007 and into 2008 (it has 80 chapters, more than 700 pages of substantive text, and something for everyone, from novice to expert!). The book’s hot, hot, hot. More about the book and its editors here.This week I’m reviewing two chapters with 6 authors between them — their bios are at the end of the reviews of the articles — specifically these chapters because I published an interview with one of the authors, Jack Cambria, in yesterday’s issue of Engaging Conflicts Today. I previously interviewed Christopher Honeyman (announcement here), and will be interviewing the other authors as the series continues. I discussed Negotiating with the Unknown Wednesday, and discuss Reputations in Negotiation today.Time was when a Formica plaque could often be found on the desk of a certain type of negotiator. It said “Yea, when I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death I shall fear no evil, for I am the meanest son of a bitch in the valley.” Is it really to your advantage to have a reputation as one of the junkyard dogs of negotiation? The authors approach the question from three very different starting points. Tinsley summarizes the research on reputation in controlled settings. Schneider turns to real-life reputations of lawyers in action. Finally, Cambria shows how the life-and-death negotiations which characterize the work of the New York Police Department’s Hostage Negotiation Team have led to a new understanding of reputation. This chapter should be read in conjunction with Lewicki on trust.
As the authors say, “reputation is too important to be left to chance.” A person’s reputation influences a negotiation. Reputation implies an expectation that a person will be and behave in a predictable way. With that expectation, our unconscious mind tends to fill in the gaps in our knowledge with traits that are clustered with the reputed trait (the “halo” or “horns” effect), and also tends to discount information which does not fit the expectation. In other words, our expectations affect our perception. The good news is that once a good reputation is established it is relatively easy to maintain. The bad news is that once a good reputation is tarnished, it is very difficult to rebuild. Read more »
“The best advice that I have received is that ‘time is on our side.’ As long as we (the police) can tolerate the behavior of someone in crisis; that is, that they are not hurting an innocent hostage or victim, then we will allow that individual to work through his or her emotion, which of course, takes time.” — Jack Cambria
Jack is interviewed in today’s issue of Engaging Conflicts Today. Jack is the Commanding Officer of the New York City Police Department’s Hostage Negotiation Team. His duties consist of coordinating the efforts of 100 Negotiators, who respond throughout the city to all hostage and related situations. He is responsible for the training and certification of new negotiators and the retraining of current negotiators, and conducts training for many outside law enforcement agencies. He worked with the Emergency Service Unit for the three months following the attack on the World Trade Center, to assist in the rescue and then recovery efforts at Ground Zero. If you would like a copy of his interview, and are not signed up for the newsletter (which you can do in the sidebar on the right!), email me this week at engagingconflicts@gmail.com with Jack Cambria in the subject line and I’ll email it to you.
I’m reviewing The Negotiator’s Fieldbook: The Desk Reference for the Experienced Negotiator, Christopher Honeyman & Andrea Kupfer Schneider, Editors (ABA 2006), through the rest of 2007 and into 2008 (it has 80 chapters, more than 700 pages of substantive text, and something for everyone, from novice to expert!). I’m reviewing the book because it’s hot, hot, hot. More about the book and its editors here.
This week I’m reviewing two chapters with 6 authors between them — their bios are at the end of the reviews of the articles — specifically these chapters because I’m publishing an interview with one of the authors, Jack Cambria, in tomorrow’s issue of Engaging Conflicts Today. I previously interviewed Christopher Honeyman (announcement here), and will be interviewing the other authors as the series continues. I’ll discuss Negotiating with the Unknown today, and Reputations in Negotiation Friday.
Negotiating with the Unknown
Marial Volpe, Jack J. Cambria, Hugh McGowan & Christopher Honeyman. Here’s the annotation from the book’s Table of Contents:
What happens when all of the classic negotiation advice about preparation goes out the window? Negotiations “on the street” teach us how extensive preparation for the process itself — for teamwork, roles, communication patterns, and trust — is crucial for success when everything you might ordinarily want to know to prepare for a specific case is impossible to find out in time.
Jack Cambria and Hugh McGowan head (Jack is the current Commanding Officer) and have headed (Hugh previously was Commanding Officer and Chief Negotiator) the New York Police Department’s Hostage Negotiation Team, currently 100 Negotiators strong. The core argument here is that it is possible to prepare for the unknown– not in the way you do for negotiations with known individuals or institutions, of course, but, nonetheless, in a way that matters. Read more »
The Emotional Intelligence Network site Six Seconds is a great resource on the subject. Emotional intelligence implies self-knowledge, called “self science” by Six Seconds and defined by them thusly:
Becoming aware of and recognizing patterns of responses to various situations is one of the prerequisites to having some control over reactions and increasing self-directedness.
Here are recent free resource offerings at the site– I tried the Digital Value Sorter and can see using it in programs I present:
Free Teleclasses – designed for members of the Emotional Intelligence Network, open to all. Adding Value with the SEI Assessment (11/12); The Inside Story on SEI (11/27); What Works for EQ Training with Leaders (12/4)? http://6seconds.org/training/teleclass.html
A Case for Emotional Intelligence in Our Schools – should emotional intelligence be a central component in all educational programs? Here’s what the research says: http://tinyurl.com/2u2man
Digital Value Sorter — in the Six Seconds EQ Model we’re concerned with how people are using emotions to make optimal decisions. People can do that more effectively when values and feeling work together. This new, free tool provides insight into someone’s core values and how they are living them: www.6seconds.org/eqsurvey2/
Here are some earlier posts about Six Seconds and emotional intelligence:
Free Emotional Intelligence Test (July 2007)
The Goal of Emotional Intelligence Awareness
Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations.
But be careful… it’s sorta addictive. You select topic areas, and then it provides sites in those areas. If you want to interact with the system, you identify your likes and dislikes, and it will adjust. There’s more involved, and I’ve only started exploring with it, but, be forewarned… it’s sorta addictive!
Occasionally, I’m asked and I’ll answer something that seems worth sharing (for what it’s worth — 5 cents?). Here’s a quick answer to “how to get your blog out there”:
To get the blog known, you must write blog posts; write regularly; and write “well” (giving value to the readers, in an authentic voice, written straight and simply). Next, you identify who you want to network with, in terms of who already has blogs that are related to yours; you add them to your blogroll to acknowledge their value to you; you consider commenting to their posts at their blogs; and you establish to them that your blog gives value through its posts and ask them to link to your blog (after your value is established to them). Third, there are some technical “tips”, such as putting the name of your blog in the post title (like I do); having your post titles be interesting in and of themselves to draw readers; and having your posts link to earlier, related posts in your blog. All these, step by step, grow your readership and credibility– and it won’t be fast, so be prepared to go the distance.
There is much more beyond this, but this is what you do to start, and you do this for at least 6 months in order to get used to this form of communication before you go the next round of activities. So… start blogging! Get the hang of it! See what amount of timing, what kinds of articles, what kind of voice works for you (by which I mean you will be able to continue it naturally on a committed basis).
If you have questions I might help with, please email me, and I’ll see what I can do.
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“I saw brutality, experienced hunger and was even recruited as a child soldier. Education for kids was only limited to knowing how to operate a hand gun and identify your enemy.” — Emmy Irobi
Emmy is interviewed in today’s issue of Engaging Conflicts Today. After serving as a child soldier in Biafra, Emmy Irobi migrated to Poland and Germany. He obtained a Masters degree in International Relations from the University of Warsaw, and went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Leipzig, Germany in May, 2005. He is now a Polish citizen, and plans to live permanently in Poland. His research interests, however, continue to center on resolving ethnic conflicts in Africa. He has also written an article on Ethnic Conflict Management in Africa which can be located at BeyondIntractability.org.
If you would like a copy of his interview and are not signed up for the newsletter (which you can do in the sidebar on the right!), email me this week at engagingconflicts@gmail.com with Emmy Irobi in the subject line and I’ll email it to you.
Here are my notes for the presentation I made last Thursday at the ACR conference — just notes; you’ll have to go to the links for more information. (Oh, and I must confess that I may not recall all that we talked about, because we had a very lively, interactive discussion!)
October 2007 ACR/Phoenix Wikis and Podcasts and Blogs, Oh My! HIGHLIGHTS
Gini Nelson, MA, JD
This isn’t a “how to”, so much as an overview of some of what I have tried in the past 1 and 1/2 years (and I have tried alot!) and what I’m working on now.
What a blog is, what a blog’s component parts are, how to search within it, how easy it is to write a post:
Engaging Conflicts Today (emailed newsletter associated with the blog, as vehicle for professional and business development):
What’s right for you (really important question)? Static, brochure-like website? Blog (and note how many different templates there are for blogs)? Something with elements of both (and/or more)? Examples: Read more »
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