Learning Empathy: Successful Negotiations, Mediations, & Conflict Resolution

Perhaps the greatest challenge I face when assisting clients reach desired objectives is to engender the desire to see an opposing point of view as a reality. Albeit in business, political, social or family situations, that others might feel they have right on their side, I have found is, for many, an almost impassable barrier. In a world that places such strong emphasis on focus as well as the very natural human desire for certainty, small wonder that arriving at a compromise presents such a challenge!

Someone recently forwarded me the quotation below from a Tim Franks’ Jerusalem Diary (BBC ) dated 17 November 2008: I was blown away by the simplicity of the message:

“... As a clinical psychologist I have often come across this type of narrow, one-sided non reflexive way of thinking. It is most often associated with pathology. It is often very difficult to make a change because of the resistance or (most often) inability to shift perspective. Most often these people are unable to feel uncertain, the major incentive to investigate a matter further. Once I took a course in "argumentation". The rules are to take a topic, make two teams, flip a coin which side to argue and then go for "winning". Try it at home or with friends and you get the first-hand experience of being an extremist…” - Mikael Scharin, Gothenburg, Sweden

I submit that if this technique is mastered, the ability to empathize will have been attained!

To read the original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7733045.stm

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First published: 03 Dec. 2008