Metro West Times

What Does Star Wars Have To Do With Negotiation and Conflict Resolution?

Read the book, “Star Wars and Conflict Resolution:  There Are Alternatives to Fighting,” and you’ll find your answer.A compilation from thought leaders in the area of negotiation and conflict resolution, Bay Path’s Dr. Josh Weiss, Director of the MS in Leadership and Negotiation program, authored a chapter entitled “Tricking the Jedi Mind: Unconscious Bias in Conflict.”“My chapter was about Implicit Bias in Conflict and how those psychological concepts drove Anakin Skywalker to the dark side.  It was a great experience to delve into a character everyone knows and apply important concepts so the reader can understand how it helped explain this part of the story.”   The book is a unique approach to looking at the dynamics of negotiation and conflict resolution through a familiar and iconic perspective: the characters and episodes of the Star Wars pantheon. It helps us explore our own responses to conflict, as we ask ourselves, “What would Hans Solo have done in this situation?” As referenced in the introduction by the editors, Noam Ebner and Jen Reynolds, “Never upset a Wookie. Be mindful of your thoughts. Surrender is sometimes a perfectly reasonable option…these are only some of the lessons about conflict and conflict resolution from the Star Wars saga.”The early reviews are in from all over the galaxy. "Negotiation can be tough, regardless of whether it's with Darth Vader or Vladimir Putin or your boss - and this collection of remarkable papers shows how to do it.... Read this book to learn how to not make the wrong deal with the devil, to never suffer "bait-and-switch" and other nefarious negotiation tactics, and to learn to negotiate from Star Wars negotiating, which is, and this is the fun part, just as much about negotiating here on Earth." - Peter Carnevale, Professor of Management and Organization, University of Southern California; co-author of “Negotiation in Social Conflict”Published in December 2022, the book is available on Amazon by clicking here. Even Master Yoda has it in his library!Dr. Weiss also co-authored an article with his colleague William Ury in the Negotiation Journal entitled "Traveler There is No Path, The Path is Made by Negotiating: The Story of the Abraham Path, a Decade and a Half of Negotiations, and Lessons Learned.” The Abraham Path was established in 2007 to follow the footsteps of Abraham, and in doing so, the modern walker could blend periods of reflection while engaging in the pilgrimage tradition of walking. To learn more about the Abraham Path, visit this blog.GLOBAL GURUS, AN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH ORGANIZATION, RECENTLY RANKED DR. WEISS AS ONE OF THE WORLD’S TOP 30 NEGOTIATION PROFESSIONALS FOR 2023.

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