I’ve been working very hard this week on my presentation that I will deliver at the ASAE & The Center Annual Meeting next Saturday, in Boston. The title of the session is “Overcoming your Association’s Fear of Conflict,” but I’m considering renaming it in the future to: “Better Conflict Conversations,” because that is mostly what it’s about. Not that the fear piece is irrelevant—the reason we experience the negative effects of conflict is primarily because we are afraid to confront the conflicts in the initial stages (when they are small, and easier to deal with, ironically). The session will talk about why we avoid conflict like that AND will provide some very simple but powerful tools for having more effective conflict conversations.

By the way, for those of you who are coming to Boston, the session is on Saturday afternoon, which is a new format for ASAE & The Center. You’ll note that the Welcome Reception is Saturday night at 7pm, and the “opening” keynote is actually the next day—Sunday morning, but don’t forget about the concurrent sessions Saturday at 3:30! There are also pre-conference workshops on Saturday, like the “Innovation Boot Camp” that Jeff De Cagna is running.