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2025 EDR blog year in review
Jan 01, 2026As we move into 2026, we’ve been looking back at the last year. Topics we covered in our blogs in 2025 included facilitation, situation assessment, lessons learned about how to set collaboratives up for success, making your meetings count, and setting effective boundaries.
If you want to move conflict in a productive direction, start with an assessment
Dec 01, 2025Situations—including conflict situations—are always ready for something. Unfortunately, people tend to act without really stepping back to understand the situation and what would move it in a productive direction.
Let’s be clear about boundaries
Nov 01, 2025One thing I have noticed is that many people seem to understand the importance of healthy boundaries, while also struggling to really understand what boundaries are—and are not—and how to implement them.
What are we co-creating?
Oct 01, 2025In the wake of recent events here in Utah and around the world, I have been thinking a lot about where we are as a society. We have managed to create scarcity and suffering amid a world of abundance and opportunity.
How to make your meetings count
Sep 01, 2025How do you honestly feel about most meetings you participate in? If your experience has been similar to that of most people, some descriptors that likely come up include “frustrating,” “waste of time,” “boring,” “unproductive,” “drawn out,” or maybe “necessary evil.”
10 key elements of successful and sustainable networks and long-term collaboratives
Aug 01, 2025We believe the collective is more effective. Collective work can be difficult, messy, and take a long time—but the results of collaborative work tend to be far more effective and long-reaching than work at the individual scale.
Understanding and identifying different kinds of interests
Jul 01, 2025When navigating conflict and collaborating—and in life in general—one of the most important things we can do to set ourselves up for success is to focus on interests and not positions.
How to share the gift of centering and self-regulation (including with potentially skeptical audiences)
Jun 01, 2025I firmly believe based on two decades of doing conflict resolution work and a lot of research that practicing self-regulation ourselves and helping others do so as well is one of the most important gifts we can give ourselves and the world.
Danya’s survival guide for these “interesting times”
May 01, 2025In these times of major uncertainty and rapid change, most of us—no matter our political orientation, values, or beliefs—are worried about shifts that could affect the things we love and care about. Some of us are already feeling the impacts. Here are a few insights that are my “survival guide” for navigating these wild times.
How to find a Big-F facilitator
Apr 01, 2025In this blog, which is the second in a series on facilitation, we discuss how to find and work with a Big-F facilitator.
What is a facilitator and what do they do?
Mar 01, 2025The EDR program team has been getting a lot of questions about facilitation. In this blog, which is the first in a series on facilitation, we explain what facilitation is, why it matters, the differences between small-f and Big-F facilitation, and what small-f and Big-F facilitators do.
La Sal Sustainability Collaboration: Conflict competence in action
Feb 01, 2025My last project with the Wallace Stegner Center’s EDR program was facilitating the La Sal Sustainability Collaboration (LSSC), a diverse group working to co-create an approach to management of the Southern La Sal’s and Canyons, where federal, state and private rangelands are operated as an integrated, sustainable system.
2024 EDR blog year in review
Jan 01, 2025To kick off the new year, we’ve been reflecting on our achievements from 2024 and what we would like to accomplish in 2025. One of the things we are proud of from 2024 is posting another year’s worth of EDR blogs on key topics related to conflict competence and collaboration.
Emotions are data when dealing with conflict
Dec 01, 2024I find it very telling that when I ask people at the start of my classes and professional trainings what they think of when they think about conflict, the most common responses are emotions (particularly unpleasant emotions) such as frustration, anxiety, anger, or fear.
We need to talk about dysregulation
Nov 07, 2024Let me start with a provocative question: How are you feeling about the current state of U.S. politics? I encourage you to take a moment to really sit with this question and tune into how you are feeling.
To overcome divisiveness, we need to focus on interests (and not positions)
Oct 01, 2024In the hope that it helps us all navigate this challenging election season, I want to build on ideas I’ve explored in prior blogs to directly address the problem with focusing on positions and highlight some approaches for focusing on what really matters—our interests.
The problem with compromise
Sep 01, 2024In my classes and trainings, I often ask people what skills are necessary for effective conflict resolution. One of the most common responses I get is “compromise.” When people say this, I ask them a follow-up question: How does compromise make you feel? I encourage you to take a moment to sit with that question yourself.
To flourish, we need to teach people how to make conflict productive
Aug 01, 2024We live in a highly interconnected world in which people from all walks of life interact with each other on a daily basis. This unavoidable reality of modern life creates many amazing opportunities, including for greater creativity and innovation. However, it can be difficult to navigate if we don’t have skills for productively working through our differences.
When dealing with conflict, don’t just be nice—be kind and firm
Jul 01, 2024As I explain, being kind and firm helps us focus on what really matters and get good outcomes for ourselves and others when dealing with conflict—and, in doing so, it helps us avoid many of the problems people create by focusing on “just being nice.”
The power of “Yes and…”
Jun 01, 2024“Yes, and” thinking is a mindset and way of speaking that reflects the simple but profound fact that the world is complex, and seemingly contradictory things can—and do—coexist.
The power of “the BOP” when dealing with conflict
May 01, 2024In this blog, I want to build on those ideas by explaining a key source of power in negotiation and conflict situations: your ability to understand and exercise what I call the BOP–your “best option possible.”