Sunday, February 13, 2011

Analyzing How Some Disputes Begin Innocently. Part 2 of 3, How Disputes Snowball.

In case you missed the first part of this three part series "Analyzing How Some Disputes Begin Innocently...", you can refer to the "free idea" that resulted in dispute escalation, and led to this series being created, by clicking here. First watch the video, then start reading the comments from the bottom to the top, since that is the order in which they originally came in.

When I analyzed how the sharing of the video that was meant as a free gift, a free idea for other realtors and loan arranger's to use at their own discretion, I noticed certain common elements that made the comments section quickly escalate into one of anger and confrontation, or what I call "blowback".

Blowback occurred because different contributors to the topic had created a different interpretation of the original topic. It became clear as the blowback escalated that what was driving the confrontation was anger and accusations of advocating an illegal action, while others were shocked that some others found the idea offensive at all.

There is a scene in Everybody Loves Raymond, in which the wife, Debra, tells Raymond that her parents are getting a divorce. Raymond, trying to be sympathetic, instead bursts out in laughter. I've seen this episode a few times, but it wasn't until perhaps the 4th or 5th time viewing that I finally understood why Raymond was laughing.

When describing the impending divorce of her parents, Debra had said, in a very tearful manner, "My parents are headed down the path of divorce". It suddenly struck me how pretentious that sounded, which would then explain Raymond's giggling and his explanation that he pictured Debra's parents walking down a pathway with a sign that said divorce on it up ahead.

It took me several viewings for me to realize that Raymond was actually right. The first few times I thought Raymond's character was really being a jerk, but then I changed my mind and realized that there was a pretense to the way Debra describe her parents getting a divorce that made Raymond giggle.

Am I implying that there was a pretentiousness in the way that the video idea was presented that may have triggered the reactions that followed? While yes would be the somewhat short and direct answer, I would then become guilty of further blowback escalating the situation and frankly, that would not really be accurate either.

Part 3 of 3 of Analyzing How Some Disputes Begin Innocently reveals one possible solution to preventing blowback escalation where good intentions were meant to be fostered.

If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
info at alexlogic.com
You can also view more
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by Alessandro Machi at

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