Why It's Critical to Listen and Act

We often end up called into schools to deal with stakeholder groups who are at odds with one another or are ready for a divorce.  Sometimes it is too late to repair the lack of trust, the deeply entrenched adversarial positions or just lack of understanding.  Almost always, this crisis could have been averted and the school could have benefitted from the differences in opinion and perspective.  

What I think is easy to forget is that the internet is now a weapon.  Any disaffected parent, board member, faculty member or student can tweet, blog, set up a web site, post on an already-existing web site and make very public their complaints.  We know that most conflicts can be damped down by listening - not agreeing necessarily, but by truly listening and allowing that the other perspective has merit.  

If you don't listen well, or don't communicate clearly that you have, you are and you want to understand - you increasingly run the risk of a very public debacle.  

Think about how you can avoid this.