As people are often already anxious when stuck at an impasse, and anxiety generally makes people’s views narrow and their brains noisier, it’s important to reduce people’s anxiety and increase their positive emotions—in other words, to shift them from an away state to a toward state. A great way to do this is using elements of the SCARF model. You could help the person increase her sense of status, perhaps by encouraging her. Or increase someone’s sense of certainty by making implicit issues more explicit, say, by clarifying your objectives. Or increase a person’s sense of autonomy by ensuring
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