Boundaries are about managing how we interface with one another. They come up when we need space, when someone’s behavior makes us uncomfortable or angry, or when problems from work migrate into your personal life. However, setting boundaries doesn’t always mean ‘taking distance’. In fact, setting limits with others may improve your relationships as you’ll [...]
30 Rock and setting boundaries
Thursday, February 9th, 2012Lady Gaga on trust
Saturday, September 17th, 2011Lady Gaga: “Trust is like a mirror, you can fix it if it’s broken, but you can still see the crack in that mother f#ck*r’s reflection.” Whether you’re a superstar dealing with a large group of fans or whether you’re a ‘regular’ person in a relationship, trust impacts us all. Trust is the lifeblood of [...]
Citizen participation, media hype and… dogs
Sunday, July 24th, 2011A while ago, I facilitated a public meeting about dogs in the municipality of Zandvoort (Holland), a fishermans village that, over the years, has transformed itself into a tourist beach resort. It houses approximately 16.000 inhabitants and, with the seasons, has a flow of millions of tourists each year. There are hotels, cafes, clubs, a [...]
How to apologize (with Christian Bale)
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011Apologizing is an essential social skill, especially since so much of our life is based on good and functional relationships. Mistakes and occasional fights happen, but it is the way you deal with them that determines what the ultimate effects of your mistakes are. But very few of us are actually taught how to apologize [...]
A mediator’s backpack
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010I stumbled upon this great thread on lifehacker: What’s in your awesome backpacks? Working as a mediator/researcher I basically live in my backpack and use it to carry around everything I need to do this work. As a mediator I do mostly public policy mediations, which means that I deal with (local) governments, special interest [...]
