Aisle Take Blame for $1000

On November 8, 2016, the world experienced a new level of blame, rocking the world of social media as people took in what, for some, was a surprising result. Over a week later, I still see posts blaming others. I don't know how beneficial that is.

Is it creating deeper friendships? No. I bet there has never been a time when Facebook's unfriend function has been more heavily utilized. Blame is not conducive to conflict resolution.

Is it persuasive? No. Putting people on the defensive is not a good way to help them be receptive to listening to your concerns much less addressing them. Plus, we need to collaborate, and that means gaining trust and sharing responsibility.

It's disempowering to give responsibility away because if we give it away, then we cease to look at what we could do differently next time and how we can collaborate in conflict resolution for this event. We also lose credibility, and we stop looking for ways we can respond going forward. That's true regardless of political views.

It's important to process the event, sans blame. Emotions are running high, and even people who are happy with the results cannot sit back on their laurels. Campaign statements do not necessarily come to fruition. Emotions must be harnessed and used effectively in the form of persuasive messaging. Until that happens, we can't accomplish anything to the satisfaction of all involved because we don't know what will satisfy them.  And it's important for all parties to be satisfied or the issues cannot be laid to rest; instead, they'll be in a constant state of flux as each side attempts to undo the work the other did.

If you really want to place blame, let's add the aisle to the list of suspects. Let's consider that if neither side can win because the other will attempt to undo it, neither side can win until both sides win. And in order for both sides to win, they have to stop pretending to be opponents looking at people as the problem, and instead collaborate to solve the challenges we all face from different perspectives.