What a great question. Marla had been struggling with preparing for a tough confrontation, and she was intent upon being absolutely honest. Marla wanted to be authentic. But I had advised her to write out her message, rehearse it, even role play with someone, before she sat down to talk to her antagonist. While she agreed that preparation was important, she began to feel false as she practiced her script.
I’ve seen both ends of entrepreneurialism, from the idealistic, optimistic, intoxicating beginning to the transformation that occurs when the hoped-for “exit strategy” is accomplished, and everything in between. It’s that long in-between that often goes unheralded when academic tomes are written, autobiographies penned and talk-show hosts courted, by those same entrepreneurs.
A lot of my work with organizations has been about conflict resolution. I don’t know if there is more conflict out there that needs resolving, or if it’s just one of those trends that only seems deterministic. (You know, like when you run into five people in a week, all named Bartholomew.) Why people continue to ask me to help address organizational conflicts is a mystery. I mean, if I really knew something about conflict resolution, I’d be on tour through Baghdad, Jerusalem and south central L.A., right?
While the headlines alternate between doom and boom, most objective data tends to indicate that we’re in a contraction phase of the natural cycle of growth on this planet. Far from being a “problem”, it is a simple fact of life. In fact, it’s a fact of everything, not just life. Growth is not linear. It’s a sinusoidal curve whose frequency and amplitude may follow a general pattern of expansion over time, but contains regular dips within that larger overall trend towards higher values.
