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Donna Hicks

Donna Hicks

Harvard conflict resolution expert and author of "Dignity" and "Leading with Dignity," Associate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center and creator of the Dignity Model.

Sep 10, 2026

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On Dignity

Sep 10 · 40m

5:55
Oh, for two.
5:56
Yeah, I feel like I have one more strike.
6:00
And so I just left it at that.
6:04
And I went home and I really, really thought about what is the word that I can use that would open up this box of stuffed resentment and anger? And how can we address that directly? And I thought, What would they really want to say to each other? What they'd want to say to each other, I decided, was how dare you treat us this way? Don't you see we're human beings and you see that we're suffering and you don't even care that we're suffering? And so I'm walking down the street, you know, having this conversation with myself.
6:48
And all of a sudden it hit me like a bolt of lightning.
6:52
I said, this is about their dignity.
6:54
This is about not even being treated as like a human being.

11 MINS LATER

17:47
So could you walk us through the model, the dignity model?
9:59
oh
9:59
That's it.
10:01
That's it.
10:02
It's about their dignity.
10:03
It's about not even being treated like a human being.
10:06
And and so I said, oh, gosh, OK, I've got to try this.
10:10
So the next time I tried it, I was in Colombia and I saw the big explosion.

10 MINS LATER

20:26
So what is dignity? How would you define it?
35:43
So can you tell us about that moment, and tell us more about that work you did with, uh, again, Archbishop Tutu and what you learned about reconciliation in that event?
35:56
One of the things that was remarkable about that project was that the BBC recognized that even though there was a peace agreement that happened, um, a couple of years before in 1998, um, everything wasn't resolved in the conflict.
36:14
Yes, the major political issues were addressed.
36:18
They...
36:18
There were decommissioning and all of that, but the human dimension of this conflict still needed...
36:26
There was healing that needed to happen.

14 MINS LATER

50:28
But he said, "We knew that, uh, we had to have this consciousness that, um, uh..." And, and, you know, here's the other thing he recognized.

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