How can you encourage clients to consider multiple perspectives?

I would encourage clients to consider multiple perspectives by explaining it as choices. Most people always want multiple choices when making a decision. Having more than one course of action is always best, when considering outcomes. Does the clients want just one answer, that may not fit the bill? Or consider alternatives that can provide more than enough ideas and ways to achieve a task to the table.

To effectively help clients, it is essential that you understand their goals. In a situation that could affect projects or business objectives, offer multiple solutions aligning with client goals. Communicate each with pros, cons, risks, and benefits. Avoid presenting only one solution, which can frustrate clients and lead to misaligned outcomes. Clients better understand and make informed decisions by offering alternative solutions and outlining each benefit. This fosters client trust, enhances satisfaction, and ensures solutions align with their goals, leading to successful outcomes and long-term relationships.

A great way to add perspective is to imagine thyself in the other persons context (age, ethnicity, context, and pressures) ? an easy way to do this is to pause, and ask yourself out-loud: “What would I do?” ? or “How would I feel?” If we’re living in this persons skin??

Through the years I have learned that I have very good discernment about the functioning of my body. I live “in here,” and everyone else has an external view and they do not have one feeling that accompanies ma quirks, pops, and other bodily functions. Therefore first respect the patient’s perspective. Empathize to the degree it is authentic and then, rather than telling the patient what they should do; make suggestions, explaining in simple terms. Many patients say no because they do not understand medical lingo. And no surprises!Tell the “cons” of each suggestion also. Gentle truth is the path to respect.

In my experience, I found that this is important first of all to myself. Each of us needs to continue learning. Listening to other people's perspectives opens my mind.

It’s important to understand the context, the issues and the interest, values and perspectives of the conflicting parties. It’s also important to do some background research on the persons res presenting their groups at the mediation table.

This is probably one of the most difficult tasks - to reign in your own subjective perspective during a mediation. Truly being in the mediation but not of it. Easier said then done and takes constant discipline to do because its very difficult to remove your own value laden thoughts about certain matters. But don't stress about being a puritan - because its impossible BUT you must minimize it to the ultimate degree. The parties are there for your facilitation of the mediation, not to have you put your 2 cents into the matter. You must detox mentally before you go into the mediation - remember you have absolutely no self-interest except for attempting to bring these 2 parties together - that's it. Keep that goal before you always.

Again, listening and checking my responses. Does my client's perspective causes discomfort or any other negative reactions? If it does, I remind myself to not react but to respond. This shift helps to continue listening.

This is likely to be unique to the individual, I don’t like to prepare too much before hand to avoid any unconscious bias. Attempting to remain fully impartial by treating everyone equally. Spent time reflecting at the end of each session to recap and reflect.

To acclimate a client to look at the other side's perspective, I try to humanize the other side. I often ask, if it was your best friend on the other side asking for your advice, what would you tell them?

A Buddhist teacher once taught me an interesting lesson on perspective using spokes of the wheel. He mentioned how man is always trying to achieve connection with the divine through various means and the different faiths of the world are like this - spokes on a wheel all headed to the center. The goal is the same - we are just using multiple means to achieve it. Another example I use is the door knob - this is perfect because its easy to visualize in the mediation room. If both parties stand on either side of the door they each will claim the door knob is on the left & right respectively and argue about it. But in reality the door knob's position is based on where they are standing and if they switch, they will see the other's perspective.

One thing serves me best is to asking a questions instead of giving an answer. This way, a client begins thinking of the answer and becomes less bias.

This may be a very blunt example of a simple concept we all know but it is most effective - put yourself in the shoes of the other party. Gideon Levy did this with the candidate and future leader of Israel Ehud Barak and asked him if he was born on the other side as a Palestinian, what would he do? He said it bluntly, he would join Hamas and fight Israel. This example obviously was a political shock to Israel and it's politics but the reality was laid before them that the sad reality of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was felt more strongly then ever by Israelis because someone honestly put themselves in Palestinian shoes. Resolution experts need to capitalize on this as much as possible - put parties in each other's shoes.

For five years, I worked at a prison in which I was the Director of the Sex Offender Program. While there, I learned that ANY behavior that was out of sync with what we called “good behavior” was an opportunity for an impromptu “role-play” experience! I noticed a man, Joe, who smiled ALL the time. It was obviously part of his child-grooming behavior. Usually I start work with “thoughts” first. This time I started with a behavior. Joe’s role: NO smiling for one month. Joe journaled also and learned how his smile and thoughts were used together; a valuable insight was breaking open in his mind. In therapy - use all your instincts, then use your tools!

One thing I've found helpful in my work is to sometimes ask my clients to "role play" the perspective of themselves either from a 3rd person perspective in the present or from their own 1st person perspective from a past and/or future date. For example, one question I'll ask is "What would your past self be most impressed by in how you currently handle life's challenges?" Another is "What would your future self say is most in the way of your growth into this next version of you?" I've found that starting with these "lower risk" scenarios can be helpful preparation for other "higher risk" scenarios that relate to perspective-taking of other people in their lives where conflict dynamics might make that a bit more challenging.

Honestly - I say let it all out and you need to make sure the clients in a dispute resolution situation feel that they will be heard. Now this doesn't mean the dialogue can't be controlled - no, because you will give proper chance to each party to express but you WANT them to express. As I said earlier, people walking around like Icebergs showing 10% externally above levels and 90% below that often collides with others below level. Get it out and encourage other side to listen to the frustration of the other party to realize often, how much something insignificant to them has effected another. Sometimes you get silence or intimidation where parties aren't willing to share openly. Have one-on-one session if need be to get them to open up.

In my experience coaching executives and organizations through conflict resolution and difficulties is often to use an approach where you seek to bridge the split by highlighting the distinction between intention and impact (i.e., your intention may have been honorable, but your impact was hurtful). Or simply by helping them surfacing the underpinning values and beliefs that may be at play (what’s this conflict really about and what′s truly at stake for you here?)

Establish ground rules and in the top 5 should be no solutionising at the early stages. This means everyone is focused on how they feel and what’s been done.

Relatability is the most important feature in trying to express a thought to another, they must be able to relate to what you are trying to express to reinforce. Try to use the experience of the client themselves to understand, often many people go through life and its various experiences not often reflecting on what truly had transpired. As a conflict resolution specialist, you need to tap into that experience of your client to extract experiential learning that they will more closely accept and adhere to once identified. Remember that's how the mind works - literally your brain tries to decode something new from what it already contains within it. Often people just need a torch light to shine on what they already have - be their light.

In my experience, I've had to unlearn opinions, concepts, and information so I could gain insights into the client's perspective. Listening and re-listening are so vital to the process to ensure that I understood the direction the client wanted to take. After gaining full understanding of the situation and the ultimate goal, I then provided a strategic matrix that included all the information from the client. The end-product reflected a process chart, SWOT analysis, and an infrastructure to guide the client to an outcome-based decision. The client could also see where their ideas were included or re-tooled to a result-oriented model. The client loved the re-tooling process because it challenged him to unlearn to move forward.