One of my favorite takeaways from my Mediation and Negotiation training is the question:

“What would it take to make things as right as possible?”

I have carried that question with me for years.

Sometimes there is simply no way to turn back the clock. Something has happened. People are angry or hurt, and they do not know how to move forward. Often they want to keep explaining what went wrong or venting about what should have happened.

But asking, “What would it take to make things as right as possible?” gently turns the conversation toward the future.

I have found that simply thinking through that question can lower the emotional anxiety in the room. It can help people get unstuck. Sometimes it even opens the door to a conversation that did not seem possible a few minutes earlier.

That one question has served me remarkably well.

– Ritchard