Jenn had an outstanding conversation with Robert Feirsen, one of the two authors of From Conflict to Collaboration, along with author Seth Weitzman. They chatted about the tough stuff – like how prevalent conflict is in schools and a number of the sources of that conflict. But then Robert shared the positive way he thinks about conflict and how we, too, can use conflict as an opportunity for learning and growth. Robert shared the idea that design thinking – an approach that comes from the discipline of engineering – can be used to address conflict effectively. First you put together a team of people with diverse roles and perspectives, and then they go through the stages of design thinking – empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test – in order to collaboratively come up with and test possible solutions to address a major conflict your school community is facing. To learn more about the authors you can go to TeacherEdge.net. As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. Additionally, if you have other non-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

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