by Dr. Z | Jul 28, 2012 | Inspiration, Learning, Thinking and Speaking
If I read another Facebook post where someone describes themselves as a “realist” I might start pulling out my beard hair, which would really hurt. We live in a cosmopolitan society where lots of different people and opinions bump into one another. Most of...
by Dr. Z | Jul 27, 2012 | Learning, Mediation and Communication, Understanding Conflict
A few months back I was conducting a training seminar for about 30 law enforcement officials. The title of the presentation was “Mediation Skills in Law Enforcement.” After some brief introductions and stereotypical presentation humor, I began to summarize...
by Dr. Z | Apr 24, 2012 | Learning, Understanding Conflict, Workplace Disputes
During a recent consulting project, an attorney relayed the following quote: When I first began my law career, I lost a lot of cases that I should have won. Now that I’ve been practicing for 20 years, I’ve won a lot of cases that I should have lost. His quote hints at...
by Dr. Z | Jan 4, 2012 | Learning, Thinking and Speaking, Uncategorized, Understanding Conflict
Do you ever find a book so intriguing that you cannot stop reading it and talking about the material? Everything about the characters feels like a mystery to be unraveled and you find yourself enamored with their personal characteristics, accomplishments, and flaws....
by Dr. Z | Dec 29, 2011 | Learning
My family recently had to make the heart-breaking decision to have one of our dogs put down. This was not an easy decision because rather than suffering a traumatic life-ending event such as a heart attack, he was slowly deteriorating due to severe epilepsy. The...
by Dr. Z | Oct 9, 2011 | Learning, Thinking and Speaking, Uncategorized
Rhetorical Blowback When a speaker successfully uses the canons of rhetoric to craft a compelling message and influence an appropriate target audience, that message often falls on deaf ears. Why does this occur? One reason has to do with the shifting communication...
