The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution presents:
Leading with Dignity:
How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People
A virtual discussion with:
Donna Hicks
Associate, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs,
Harvard University
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm, EDT
About the event:
“If we want to lead people, we’d better understand them,” says Dr. Hicks in her 2018 book, “Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People.” With over 25 years of work in international conflict resolution, she has seen first-hand the devastating effects of indignity on a grand scale. She has learned that the desire for dignity is universal. Human beings do not like to be treated as if they don’t matter. Her presentation will explain what dignity is and is not, why dignity matters so much to us, what it looks like to treat people with dignity, and advice to any leader on how to leverage the universal yearning to create an environment where people feel seen, heard, recognized and listened to and valued. She argues that the extent to which leaders pay attention to, recognize, and understand the dignity concerns underlying people’s grievances makes an enormous difference as to whether leaders can resolve conflicts, have better relationships, and remedy toxic workplace cultures.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Donna Hicks is an Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. She was Deputy Director of the Program on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution (PICAR) at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She worked extensively on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and as a member of the third party in numerous unofficial diplomatic efforts. In addition to the Middle East, she has worked in Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Colombia, and Libya, and has conducted several US/Cuba dialogues. She is the Vice President of Ara Pacis, an Italian non-governmental conflict resolution organization that focuses on the human dimension of conflict. Dr. Hicks was a consultant to the BBC, where she co-facilitated encounters between victims and perpetrators of the Northern Irish conflict with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The encounters were made into 3 television programs, Facing the Truth, which were aired throughout the United Kingdom and on BBC World.
Dr. Hicks has taught courses in conflict resolution at Harvard, Clark, and Columbia Universities and conducts trainings and educational seminars in the US and abroad on the role dignity plays in healing and reconciling relationships in conflict. She conducts Dignity Leadership Trainings in corporations, schools, churches, and non-governmental organizations. She is the author of the book, Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict, published in 2011 by Yale University Press. Her second book, Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People, was published by Yale University Press in 2018.
About the Herbert C. Kelman Seminar Series:
The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution series is sponsored by the Program on Negotiation, The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and Boston area members of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. The theme of the Kelman Seminar is “Negotiation, Conflict and the News Media”.
For more information, contact Donna Hicks at dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu.
