Seventeen years after the original "The Power of Nice" changed the way people negotiate, author Ron Shapiro returns to share a refined and updated edition of his renowned classic. The new "The Power of Nice" empowers negotiators, including those seeking to overcome the disadvantage of financial status, rank, gender, race, age, insecurity, nerves or any other imbalance and maximize their return without burning bridges.

Through time-tested processes, anecdotes and exercises, the newest version of "The Power of Nice" breaks down the art of negotiation into a streamlined, Systematic Approach that can empower any negotiator to achieve success.

Read more [HERE]. 

Conflict resolution and the ancient art of kintsugi

What if, instead of viewing conflict as something that leaves permanent cracks and breaks in our relationships, we viewed those fault lines as testament to what the relationship has weathered? What if, instead of trying to ignore or hide the damage, we revered it, understanding that “as good as new” is a misguided goal?

Artist Teresita Fernández was walking through the Metropolitan Museum of Art when her attention was caught by a broken piece of Greek pottery from 487 BC. Known as an ostracon, this piece of discarded pottery got a second life in Greek society for use in voting. Greek citizens would choose a piece of broken pottery from a pile, write their candidate choice on it, and cast their vote by throwing it in a pile to be counted later.

Captivated by the shard in the museum, Fernández mused that while we are conditioned to think of something broken as a loss or a setback, here before her was an exquisite example of something broken that had transformed into something valuable.

There is a mending tradition in Japan, called kintsugi, that embraces this idea. Kintsugi, which means “to patch with gold,” is the art of mending broken pottery with resin mixed with gold. Instead of treating the break as something to hide...

Read more [HERE].

U.S. lead negotiator with Cuba is known for breaking barriers

WASHINGTON — The leader of the U.S. delegation to this week’s talks on normalizing relations with Cuba has a reputation for determination and expertise at the State Department, where she flouted custom with an unlikely rise from rank-and-file civil servant to a role that’s been described as “horse trader of the Americas.”

Diplomats and Latin America specialists describe Roberta Jacobson as a hard-charging stateswoman who tempers a steely professionalism with humor and warmth. As the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, she oversees 10,000 personnel in 30 countries, is the first woman to hold the job and was the State Department’s first regional deputy assistant secretary to have risen to that rank without first being a foreign service officer.

Across the board, diplomats described her ascent to assistant secretary from the civil service, not the more specialized foreign service, as “exceedingly rare” and “practically unheard-of.”