Before Your Next Fight, Read This

by Daniel Shapiro, PhD
People fighting in front of exclamation point

He hadn't done the dishes. She was livid. He was livid that she was livid. Which gave one expert negotiator the perfect opportunity to practice what he preaches—turning an adversary into a partner.

Thank you, Aunt Margaret!

It's eight o'clock on a Saturday morning, I was up all night doing taxes, and I've had only four hours of sleep when my wife, having decided this would be a good time to torture me, wakes me with an angry accusation: "You didn't do the dishes!"

I put a pillow over my head.

"You said you were going to do them!"

"I'm trying to sleep, Mia."

Mia doesn't care. "How come I have to do all the work around here?"

I hold the pillow tighter. "Can't this wait?"

"No."

Now I'm angry.

 

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