Conflict
Family business benefits from TUF training
Here’s three tips you can learn to talk with anyone who has a different opinion from you.
Conflict
What drives aggressive behavior?
Here’s three tips you can learn to talk with anyone who has a different opinion from you.
Conflict
3 tips for talking with angry antivaxxers
Here’s three tips you can learn to talk with anyone who has a different opinion from you.
Listening
Why is it so hard to show empathy?
Julie complained that while she was good at being positive and showing empathy with difficult customers, she found it more challenging to do the same with her co-worker Susan who really got on her nerves. She had seen the following definition of empathy and while believing it to be true, Read more…
Conflict
TUF de-escalation skills for staff health and safety
“We are getting more and more irate customers. Our staff don’t know how to deal with them.” Here at Thriving Under Fire we are getting more enquiries like this than ever before. For the past 20 years we have specialized in de-escalation training and managing emotions at work. Our pandemic Read more…
Conflict
What hostage negotiators can teach you about getting on with others.
FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss can teach us an enormous amount about getting on with others. His book Never Split the Difference comes from years of dealing with the most challenging hostage situations around the world. He says a hostage negotiator can’t afford to split the difference. Picture a hostage Read more…
Conflict
Can workplace anger be productive
As a kid, I got mixed messages about anger. My parents were frequently angry. When they were angry, they would hit me or one of my eight siblings. It’s understandable they were mightily frustrated. Anger and aggression were very closely linked for me. I learned in church that anger was Read more…
Conflict
Why should I just shut up?
In 2009 a friend of mine, 18-year-old Eva Maria published a book titled “You Shut Up!” hoping to improve communication between adults and teens. “Adults need to shut up and listen to what young people are saying”, she said. Ten years later the generation gap between millennials, Gen Xers and Read more…
Listening
Why effective listening is so difficult
In the video “It’s not about the nail” a woman sits on the couch with her partner and complains of terrible headaches that simply won’t go away. She has no idea what’s causing them. The camera pans out to reveal a large nail in her forehead. It’s a shocking picture Read more…
Management
Why is it so hard to talk about feelings?
Imagine a stadium full of people shouting as loud as possible for a minute or two before the first whistle had even been blown. That was the scene at a recent rugby test match in New Zealand between the All Blacks and Tonga. The purpose was to encourage people to Read more…