Ep 165. Jennifer Goldman-Wetzler: Free Yourself From Conflict
“When you break free from a conflict loop that’s had a hold on you, there’s a moment when you’ll suddenly feel free — physically lighter, exhaling a huge sigh of relief.”
Jennifer Goldman-Wetzler
Jennifer Goldman-Wetzler is a leading expert on conflict and organizational psychology. She’s also the founder and CEO of Alignment Strategies Group, and author of Optimal Outcomes: Free Yourself from Conflict at Work, at Home and in Life, which was selected as a Financial Times Book of the Month. For two decades, Jennifer has advised senior leaders at global corporations as well as at large non-profit and governmental institutions. A former counterterrorism research fellow with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, she received her B.A. with honors from Tufts University and holds a Ph.D. in Social-Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. She currently writes the Achieving Conflict Freedom column at Psychology Today, and serves as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Organization and Leadership at Columbia University, where she teaches a popular course on conflict freedom.
In this episode, Stew and Jennifer discuss conflict, how to recognize your typical response patterns, and ways to capitalize on the emotions engendered by conflicts and use them to de-escalate and find a new way forward. As so many are confined with family members or other housemates during the pandemic, conflicts about childcare, work schedules, household chores, and other issues have risen to the fore. Tools for breaking through conflict are needed now more than ever. Jennifer illustrates how her research helps people find pattern-breaking avenues including by focusing, for example, on shared values.
Here’s a challenge, an invitation, for you to consider, after you’ve listened to this episode: Think of a conflict from which you’d like to be free and sketch its optimal outcome, as Jennifer describes it. See what you discover from seeing new possibilities through this lens.
Share your thoughts on this episode and ideas for future shows with Stew Friedman at friedman@wharton.upenn.edu or connect with him on LinkedIn.
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