Strategies and Approaches
for Outrage Management
www.psandman.com/handouts/sand42.pdf
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Day 2 Opening
• Find a partner, and together write a
twitter message about the course
so far (max. 140 characters)
• Write on large stickies
• Anything you want to be sure we
cover today?
Strategy #4 Discuss Achievements
with Humility. Give Away Credit.
Strategy 4 Exercise
Individually:
Consider how would you apply this
strategy in your own organization?
Strategy #5 Share Control
and
Be Accountable
Small Group Exercise
Using the case study from Day 1
• Consider the negotiable elements
• Determine all partners who might
share some control
• How important will each partner
consider that element?
• Follow instructions and complete
worksheet
Strategy # 6
Pay Attention to Unvoiced Concerns &
Underlying Motives
Strategy #6 Exercise
• Review the “Headlines”
• What is the primary concern articulated
in the headline?
• What other concerns might
stakeholders be dealing with? What
other concerns might be raised?
• How might you get at these underlying
motives?
Stakeholder Involvement
Your Stakeholders...
• Need a full & clear understanding of who
needs to be involved and what they care
about
• Where does their outrage come from?
• 1 Foundations of P2 = VALUES
– What is important to people?
– Why is that important to them?
• What “place” are they coming from?
Greed /
Self
Interest
Ego /
Self
Esteem
Outrage
What does Peter say?
What does Peter say?
Small Group Exercise
• Think about the stakeholders and ask
• 4 Key Questions:
–
–
–
–
Who are your stakeholders?
What might be some of their values?
What “place” are they coming from?
What “place” are you (or the organization) coming
from?
• Flip chart some of your stakeholders and their
values
• Identify on the triangle what place they might be
coming from
• What place are you coming from?
Objectives
What might be some P2
objectives specifically to
managing outrage?
Techniques
• Find a partner
• Pick 2 objectives
• Identify a few techniques you
could use to achieve that
objective
• Use the toolbox as a resource
Class Activity
Objective
Techniques to Consider
Build trust through
openness and transparency
Fish bowl
Citizen overview committee
Build comfort by providing
visible accountability
Fish bowl and open meetings
Report cards and grading by citizen group or others
Share power and control
Citizen juries Charrettes
Workshops
Advisory Committees
Deliberative and Choice Creating Processes
Deliberative Forums
Deliberative Polling Consensus Conferences
Consensus ProcessWisdom Councils
Help make aspects of
project more familiar
Tours
Symposia
Study circles
Deliberative Forums
Deliberative and Choice Creating Processes
Open Space Technology
Allow people to vent in
order to be heard and
reduce their frustration and
outrage
Public meetings
Samoan circles
Interviews and one-on-one conversations
Small discussion groups
Build trust by decision
maker for public
Informal small coffee klatches with decision makers and
members of public
Listening circles
Self Awareness & Barriers to
Outrage
How YOU impact The
Situation
Self Awareness
• What do people really need in an
outrage situation?
• How can YOU make a difference in
that moment?
• What are the most important things
you bring to the situation to address
outrage?
Your Goals in Empathic
Communication
Bring out 3 things into the room:
• How your stakeholders feel about the
situation
• How your stakeholders feel about you
• Who your stakeholders imagine you
are
What does Peter say?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Elements of Empathic
Communication
Feeling & Attitude: Empathy isn’t a Strategy
Candor & Humanity: Being Real
Deflection
Questioning: How Does That Make You Feel?
Listening & Echoing: I Hear You
Agreement: I Think You’re Right About That
Proactive Acknowledgment: Some Things You
Should Know About Me
• Performatives: I Hope the Situation Will
Improve Soon
• Pay attention to your state of being and to how you are
talking and listening
• Speak Up
• Remember that you don’t know the truth about anything
• Engage with and listen to others who have a stake in the
system
• Reflect on your own role in the system
• Listen with empathy
• Listen to what is being said not just by yourself and
others but through all of you
• Stop talking
• Relax and be fully present
• Try out these suggestions and notice what happens
From Adam Kahane, 2004 &2007
Pairs Exercise
• In pairs, work together to identify
some ways for you to be empathetic in
the face of venting.
• For a few minutes each play the role of
a venting, outraged stakeholder, while
the other tries to be empathetic.
• Spend a few minutes debriefing the
experience, and then switch.
Barriers to Outrage Management
Have you been thinking….That will never
work in my job / work place /
situation……?
• As a group identify some barriers to
implementing the strategies
• Try to identify at least one in each
category
• Pick a few to discuss in your group
• As a group, identify some strategies for
addressing those barriers
Pulling it all together
• Confirm – which factors are driving the
outrage?
• Which strategies are pertinent?
• How will you carry out those strategies:
• In the moment?
• In planning?
• How will you address any barriers?
• Complete task and then present your
approach
• Peer Review – Do you think this will manage
the outrage? What was done well? What
could be improved?