In my negotiation books they tell us that the way to defeat institutional power is through 3 power levers: 1. Personal power (remaining confident and skilled, having status helps too and charisma) 2. Situational power (your past history with the interlocutor & of the context 1/
Situational context comes from analyzing the context for biases, alternatives, knowledge of the subject matter ie having receipts and evidence and research and intel etc,) & charting out the actors by understanding their profiles and who is influencing who on your war map 2/
Apr 25, 2024 • 8 tweets • 1 min read
Every time people complain things like oh we are gonna lose young voters bc we got rid of clock app or if we don’t cater to Muslims we are gonna lose them by not screaming ceasefire… what I really hear from the ones making these claims is this 1/
They they operate from a fear based place instead of place of courage and optimism. They choose pessimistic bias and defeatism instead of optimism and courage and hope 2/
Jan 23, 2024 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
I often teach listening skills to people. One of my own mentors, a former chief hostage negotiator of Scotland taught me to think in terms of 7 layers: facts, emotions, beliefs, values, motivators, currency, worth 1/
A key distinction in terms of facts is to separate what is actually fact vs assumption. If someone says they are a doctor & you see the MD in their handle like in mine, fact is knowing by training they are a doctor. Does that mean they practice medicine or could they have left?2/
Dec 6, 2023 • 10 tweets • 1 min read
There are more than a billion Muslims. Most of them are not Al qaeda, Isis, Hamas, Wahhabism, hazbollah, etc 1/
Most people are average people trying to make a living. They are the doctors in your hospital who helped tackle Covid 2/
Dec 4, 2023 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Some of you have forgotten what the Trump era was like already and it shows… so story time 1/
The year was 2018 and it was the height of the Trump presidency. I was meeting with an Indian friend from the area and we were to go to the Holocaust museum in DC 2/
Oct 8, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I noticed yesterday was the harsh criticism against Gov whitmer! Do any of you realize she governs a state with the largest Muslim community &largest Arab community in the nation including Christian Arabs from Iraq, Syria, & Palestine? As well as a large Jewish populus 1/
As such she has a duty to be careful how she words things regarding a delicate and complex international situation that is very nuanced and not as Black and White. Hamas was not justified for what it did to civilians but the larger issue goes beyond that 2/
