As Canada’s authority on cultural reconstruction in complex emergencies, Dr. Sarah Jane Meharg is the principal and founder of Peace and Conflict Planners, often called upon by the Canadian Forces to help stabilize war-torn or post-disaster affected communities. She's authored two books: one on navigating the military and humanitarian divide and the other on measuring effectiveness, success, and understanding in peace operations and crisis management—a work endorsed by the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Martti Ahtisaari.

Her studies with Influence Ecology taught her about mitigating the cost she is to others in social exchanges; specifically, that persistence can be high cost—both to herself and those she is persistent with—and that persistence is not always warranted or called for to achieve her aims.

This episode's guru talk is from a portion of the Fundamentals of Transaction Program where Vice President Drew Knowles and Co-Founder Kirkland Tibbels address how unaware we are to the cost we impose on others in transactions.