Excellent post, Jennifer, thank you!

I've had to mention the proverbial "Elephant in the Room" more times than I care to count. The effort has been most effective when I first take a moment to reflect. If I can identify shared, big-picture goals among the stake-holders, and frame the controversy in a collaborative context, I find others more inclined to move forward.  The key has been to:

  1) Remind stakeholders of shared, overarching objectives
  2) Frame conflict in this context
  3) Remove personalization, whenever possible
  4) Speak in hopeful tones

It's possible to speak a message of hope into most stalemates, but it works better for me when I take these steps. It's seldom fun, but often necessary and usually productive.

Thanks again!

Tristan