✓ Analog and digital tools
✓ Over 30 years of experience in conflict resolution
✓ Free empathy guide
Conflict resolution tools work when they help people move from reactive positions to honest, needs-based dialogue. The Empathy Set was built by John Ford, a practitioner who spent 30 years resolving conflict as an attorney, workplace mediator, and divorce mediator before creating tools that actually work in the room where conflict happens. Anyone who has watched a difficult conversation spiral into blame understands why conflict resolution tools need to do more than encourage better listening. Over three decades of real mediation practice shaped every product in our suite, from the original feelings and needs cards to the digital app that puts the same framework in your pocket.
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“Empathy is demonstrating an understanding of another's feelings and needs!"
Marshall Rosenberg, Non Violent Communication
What is The Empathy Set?
The Empathy Set comprises two sets of cards: 56 feeling cards and 56 needs cards.
Together, they are a powerful communication tool that supports empathy and emotional intelligence – and so relational harmony.
When we acknowledge our feelings and identify our needs we are empowered. We get empathy and can empathize with others. We experience the magic of transformation in our important relationships.
The feeling and needs cards (collectively The Empathy Set) help you discover what you (and others) are feeling and needing in any life situation. And they support you working together to find solutions that meet the needs of all.
So often, we have something important to say, but don’t know how to do so without putting strain on the relationship or making the situation worse.
With an understanding of what you (and others) are feeling and needing, you will feel confident to express yourself in a positive relationship building manner.
In a nutshell, the cards are a tool that get you in touch with vital information so that you can communicate positively what you are feeling and needing, without judgment, and then problem solve to find a solution that meets everyone’s needs.
Instructions showing exactly how to use them on your own, with others and with your teams, are included.
Who needs the Empathy Set?
The cards put a powerful emotional intelligence tool in your hands, whether at work or at home or in your personal life.
The Empathy Set is ideal for everyone, for in truth, we all have challenges communicating positively, without judgment and put downs.
Specifically, The Empathy Set is ideal to explore how we are feeling and what we are needing from our family members, whether it be our parents, our siblings, our children or our relatives.
The Empathy Set is perfect to prepare for a difficult workplace conversation with your boss, your peer or your subordinate.
The Empathy Set is a powerful tool in the hands of facilitators, workshop leaders, therapists, trainers and mediators who want to support their client’s transformation through a variety of interactive applications.
Benefits of the Empathy Set
The cards can be used to express feelings and needs by anyone who may be struggling to communicate positively.
The Empathy Set facilitates empathy while building emotional intelligence.
SHIPPING: A $7.00 shipping fee will be applied, and the product will ship via UPS Ground or USPS. You will be provided the tracking number.
The Zulu Beaded Talking Sticks are modelled on the shape of a modern microphone and made from Kiat wood which is turned on lathes to ensure consistency as to length and the tapering of the stem.
The exceptional quality bead work is performed by a team of Zulu women in the Valley of a Thousand Hills who partner with Africa Smiles, an organization whose vision is to create beautiful, innovate handmade products while supporting a sustainable income for their crafters and their families.
Each talking stick comes with a handy protective pouch and a set of instructions to provide guidance on how to use them. Ideally no one gets to make their point until they can restate to the other person’s satisfaction, their point of view.
These Giraffe Talking Sticks are made in Malawi from beautiful Ebony wood.
Each talking stick is unique, measuring between 7 and 8 inches in length, however, they all have a giraffe on the top, to symbolize the mascot of Non Violent Communication!
Each talking stick comes with a handy protective pouch and a set of instructions to provide guidance on how to use them. These talking sticks are especially suited to support you to have a delicate conversation with someone important to you.
What Conflict Resolution Tools Do We Offer?
The best conflict resolution tools, in any setting, help users identify the feelings and needs underneath the surface dispute before a word is spoken to the other person. Our empathy tools give individuals, couples, and workplace teams a complete framework for navigating conflict without judgment or escalation. The 56 feelings cards and 56 needs cards in our empathy cards deck help users sort through what they are actually experiencing before they try to express it. Our emotional dictionary extends that process with definitions and synonyms for 108 feelings and needs, expanding the vocabulary people use to name their inner experience with precision. Most people entering conflict do not lack goodwill, but rather the precise language to express what they feel and need without it landing as an attack. Our app brings the full framework to any device, making the process of identifying feelings and needs available anywhere a difficult conversation is about to happen.
Download the guide and start applying these ideas right away
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Use Resolutions Tools Today
Thirty years of workplace mediation and divorce resolution shaped every one of our conflict resolution tools. People who use structured dialogue consistently report that the shift is not just in how they communicate but in how quickly they recover when a conversation goes sideways. Structured, turn-based dialogue becomes possible when both people have something concrete to hold, which is exactly what our talking sticks provide as a physical symbol of whose turn it is to speak and be heard. Discover our tools alongside a free empathy guide and start building the skills that keep hard conversations from becoming permanent damage.