Business Book Summaries

Workplace conflict need not be a problem. There are steps that can be taken by management to ensure that conflicts can be resolved as soon as possible and without harm. Moreover, if and when properly managed, conflicts have the potential to generate positive outcomes for all concerned.

If conflict is to be handled in a gainful manner, it is vitally important that individuals and organizations develop robust strategies for coping with conflict in the workplace. Not surprisingly, managers will often intuitively seek to resolve these disagreements by means that are primarily unilateral in nature.

Without a culprit, ideally one that can be proven to be at fault beyond reasonable doubt, the unilateral approach to conflict resolution simply does not work. In acknowledgment of these facts, when confronting conflicts within the workplace, alternative methods should always take precedence.

When taking a consultative approach to conflict resolution, disputants attempt to take responsibility for, and ownership of, their own disputes. Of course, unless a manager is actually one of the disputing parties, they will typically not be involved in the consultative resolution of conflict, nor perhaps even aware that there is a problem, or that an attempt at resolution is taking place at all. If one is to capitalize on the potential gains of consultative conflict resolution it is crucial that managers can take a step back and allow employees to attempt to work out their differences. It is an unfortunate reality of the workplace that some matters simply cannot be resolved by the parties involved, and that these conflicts, if left unresolved, can tend to fester.

Often known as the ‘softly-softly’ approach, facilitation is a relatively informal approach in which a third party, preferably one respected by and familiar with the disputing parties, brings the complainants together for discussions in the hope of establishing mutually satisfactory resolutions. Facilitation is a strategy for conflict resolution that is most potent in the early-stages of conflicts. Employed typically for fairly minor or mild conflicts, facilitation can be an extremely useful approach for a manager, whom sometimes might have to do as little as get the parties together and lend his/her presence to proceedings. Certainly, early informal interventions into conflicts, such as facilitation, should always be the first response to the identification of a potentially serious workplace conflict.

On the other hand, as with all approaches, there are issues revolving around facilitation that should concern a manager. Having established that third party conflict interventions are an unfortunate reality of the modern workplace, there are times when the subtlety of facilitation simply isn’t enough. Mediation is defined as a formal process of negotiation conducted in a controlled environment through which an impartial third party, ideally someone with no inherent decision-making power in regards to the matter, takes an active role in guiding disputing parties towards voluntarily settlement of a dispute. Needless to say, properly conducted mediation, executed from a position of neutrality by suitably skilled and experienced mediators, exists as a powerful tool for resolving conflict in the workplace.

Evidence suggests that, when mediation does work, it tends to produce enduring resolutions that involve minimal damage to the ego or interests of those involved and minimum potential for negative ‘spill-over’ in the workplace. Mediation is therefore widely regarded as an excellent means for resolving serious and pressing workplace conflicts. Arbitration is a formal process in which a third party, or occasionally parties, mutually agreed upon by the disputants or appointed by a suitable authority, renders a rational, legally-binding decision based upon the interpretation of the available evidence. While relatively few workplace conflicts find their way into a court, or board of arbitration, in the most serious of disputes, lawyers or similar agents of representation will often be solicited by the disputing parties.

In the final analysis, the implication for managers is that conflict is not necessarily counterproductive, but the inability to resolve conflict definitely is.

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Every client, every situation is, of course, different, but regardless of the details of the situation, if you aren’t getting the response you want, or expect, you need to look at your message and – just as important – at how you are expressing that message.

Often, with just a few adjustments, you can go from a near miss to a slam dunk, from a “that was nice” presentation to one that knocks their socks off, from a mediocre meeting to one that fires up each and every participant.

The thing is, when you want to make a good impression no detail is too small. No amount of advance preparation is too much. No word choice is unimportant.

The shirt you wear, the chair you sit in, the thank-you note you write afterward should all be carefully considered, and ultimately compound the impression of someone who’s calm, confident, and in-command.

 The strategies offered in How to WOW, Frances Cole Jones’s new book, come from a spectrum of modalities and, aside from the general principles; the information offered is yours to pick and choose from.

There are no “rules” because each comes to the table with a unique set of attributes and circumstances.

And more important, each is smart enough to know what will work for them and their circumstances: what will help give you the confidence to speak your mind in a meeting, motivate your team under deadline, or negotiate your business deal over pasta puttanesca.

Cut down on reading time and still stay on top of the latest business trends and ideas from the business gurus. Visit us at http://www.bizsum.com