Why is it so important to measure absence?

Absence isn’t just a concern for those left to pick up the pieces. It has implications on business operations, impacts quality and costs money. Some of the ways it costs organisations are:

• Sick pay
• Additional overtime and administration costs
• Risks of litigation/payouts
• Additional burden of costs of managing escalated absence issues
• Cost of absence in terms of budgeting and forecasting

What can you do to minimise the costs?

• Monitor absence
• Implement a KPI to measure absence rates
• Review absence rates as part of the appraisal system
• Provide flexible working hours

STOP is a very simple tool that helps owners/managers/directors/team leaders step back from focusing on the business and shift to gaining a broader perspective.

While engaged in business our focus is very narrow. So if you need one tool in your armoury to gain a better perspective then STOP is it.

Step back – get some distance from your business and collect yourself. Find a place where you can think clearly.

Think – stopping thinking to Think can be a paradox but what it allows us to do is to change our thinking gears, either to a different level of thinking or to calm our thoughts. Some good questions to then ask are:

• What am I trying to achieve?
• What is my priority right now?
• Is this the real problem that I am solving?
• What assumptions am I making?

Organise your thoughts – this allows you to plan, consider and decide priorities, delegate responsibilities and organise actions. It brings structure to your thinking which makes it easier to move forward.

Proceed – Once the steps are clear then it is time to get back in to action. Continue to do so until you notice you are losing clarity of thinking and drifting back in to firefighting mode. When this happens, you know what to do…. STOP!

Rule 1: See conflict as an opportunity

Your perception of conflict has a direct impact on how it plays out in your life. If you embrace conflict and see it as an opportunity to better a situation or a relationship, then you’ll take on the challenge of seeing the confrontation through, regardless of how difficult it may be, because you know that the ultimate benefit of working through an issue will be worth it in the long run for both you and your working relationship with the other party.

If, on the other hand, you distain conflict and would rather lie on a bed of sharp nails than address a problem with a coworker, you’ll be more inclined to avoid it, mismanage it, or even deny its existence. In either case, your negative perception of conflict will prevent you from dealing with it effectively. Furthermore, avoiding conflict only makes it more likely that the issue will continue to be a source of contention with no end in sight.

Keys:

• Begin by breaking away from the following myths around conflict:
  1. Conflict is negative.
  2. Conflict is about winning and losing.
  3. Conflict, if left alone, will resolve itself.
  4. Conflict only impacts the parties in conflict.
  5. Your past determines how you handle conflict today.
• The truth is, only you can determine what conflict means to you. However, if you truly want to be better at resolving conflict, then it’s important to view conflict from a new perspective: From To Negative Positive Disruption Opportunity Incompatibility Diversity Error/Mistake Improvement Right/Wrong Differences About the person About the issue
• By approaching conflict as an opportunity, any reluctance you have will begin to dissipate with practice as your confidence grows.

Rule 2: Choose your battles

Take on the issues that matter to you and/or that impede you from being as effective as possible on the job and let the rest go. Life’s too short to be wasting any of your valuable time and energy on issues that ultimately don’t matter or that don’t impact you in a detrimental way.

Keys:

• Think through an unresolved or current conflict and do the following:
  1. Identify the benefits of resolving the problem for you, for the other party, and for the people impacted by this conflict.
  2. Identify the potential costs of not resolving the conflict for you, for the other party, and for the people impacted by this conflict.
  3. Compare your findings. If the benefits outweigh the costs, then you need to address the problem, regardless how uncomfortable it might be.
• Always have an exit strategy (i.e., avoid, accommodate, let it go, turn the other cheek, or just walk away) for the irrelevant or non-important issues.

Rule 3: Do your homework

The more prepared you are to address and resolve a conflict, the better you’ll do. This includes taking the time to think through the problematic issue(s), personality dynamics, relevant past experience and desired outcomes before engaging in an authentic conversation to resolve a conflict with another party. It’s no different than preparing for a speech or an exam. With preparation, you become more confident, focused, and in control of your emotions.

Keys:

• Always remember that the people who trigger you the most are often your best teachers. Why? Because these people bring out your vulnerabilities, insecurities, and hot buttons that actually end up revealing more about you than about them. That doesn’t mean that your conflict is less legitimate, but just don’t forget to include yourself when examining the problem. You’d be surprised what you might learn.
• If you find yourself judging another person’s actions without knowing the intent behind those actions, ask that person first what they meant or why they did what they did before attributing any motives to them. What you will often discover is that there was a well-meaning or humorous intention that went astray. Wouldn’t you want others to do the same with you?
• Consider thinking through these questions prior to talking out a conflict:
  1. What’s your desired outcome for both the relationship and the conflicting issue?
  2. In order to achieve those outcomes, how do you need to be in the discussion so as to ensure the greatest chance for success?
  3. Do you know what the problem is and are you prepared to propose a solution, if needed?
  4. Are you willing to hear the problem described from the other party’s perspective, including how you might have contributed to the conflict?
  5. Are you willing to compromise in order to reach agreement?
  6. If the conflict should happen to escalate, do you have an exit strategy?

Rule 4: Take the initiative

Conflict is not about who’s right or wrong, who’s more at fault, or who should be the first one to apologize to the other. The fact is that if the conflict is bothering you, then it is yours to resolve. Waiting for the other party to come to you doesn’t help you address the problem; it only prolongs it.

Keys:

• Never hold on to an issue, a wrongdoing, or an unresolved conflict. Find a way to address it, resolve it, or let it go. This is about you taking care of you.

• The benefits of taking it upon yourself to resolve a conflict include:

1. 1. You are taking care of yourself.
   2. You are managing the relationship between you and the other party.
   3. You are not allowing a problem to fester inside of you.
   4. You are role modeling effective conflict resolution to your peers.
   5. You are holding the other party in the conflict accountable for their actions.

• If emotions are high and/or you don’t feel safe initiating a conversation with the conflicting party, consider a third party facilitator/mediator to intervene. This could be your supervisor, a human resource representative, or an outside facilitator.

Rule 5: Focus “out” before focusing “in”

Focusing “out” means understanding the other party’s point of view before expressing your own. Why does this matter? Because it puts the other person at ease knowing that their concerns have been heard and validated. When people feel listened to and acknowledged, they have a tendency to relax and lower their defenses. This not only helps ease the conversation, but increases the likelihood that the other party will be more willing to hear your side of the story.

Keys:

• Why active listening is so important:

1. 1. It allows the other party to vent.
   2. It provides clarity for you on the problem from his or her perspective.
   3. It validates the other party’s concerns.
   4. It shows you are willing to collaborate.
   5. It helps diffuse any anger the other party may have.
   6. It allows you time (since the initial focus is on them) to think through your response.
   7. It provides you with information that you may not have had, allowing you to respond from a more informed perspective.

• Improve your ability to become an active listener now by asking questions and paraphrasing in your everyday conversations.

Rule 6: Seek mutually beneficial solutions

Successfully managing conflict means having the ability not only to bring an issue to resolution but also to do it in a respectful, collaborative manner with the other party. One without the other will greatly diminish your results.

Keys:

• If you always treat the other party in a conflict with respect, you will have discovered the quickest way to resolution.
• If emotions are high, you are better off postponing a confrontation until you can be reasonable and rational. Unloading emotions might make you feel better, but if it is at the expense of coworker, you could end up making things worse.
• Keep the discussion on the conflicting issue and/or behavior and stay away from personal attacks. By separating the issue from the person, you have a much greater chance for resolution.
• Follow these steps when addressing a concern:

1. Begin by acknowledge the importance of having an effective working relationship with the other party.
2. Tell the other party that the purpose of your conversation is to share a concern that you feel is impacting your working relationship with them.
3. Describe the particular behavior that is causing a problem for you.
4. Explain how the behavior is impacting your ability to get your work done.
5. Propose a solution.
6. Seek the other party’s input.
7. Get agreement.
8. Talk about how to handle any potential problems together before they occur.
9. Thank the other party for his or her willingness to collaborate with you.
10. Always follow up with the other party a week or so later to ensure that things are working better.

Rule 7: Empower the third side

In a conflict, there’s your side, there’s their side, and there’s the “third side.” According to William Ury, author of Getting to Peace, the third side in a conflict is all the people who are directly and indirectly impacted by someone else’s conflict. Although many third-siders see themselves as innocent bystanders, they actually have a tremendous influence on establishing a work environment that either supports constructive and functional conflict resolution or reinforces dysfunctional and destructive conflict resolution.

Keys:

• As a team, work group and/or department, establish group norms and expectations around managing conflict effectively and productively.
• Make sure that everyone understands his or her role in ensuring that norms are followed when conflict amongst members occurs.
• Schedule biannual teambuilding sessions to further develop working relationships while instilling a greater sense of team.

• Establish and enforce consequences for any member of the group who disregards the established protocol for effective conflict resolution.

Rule 8: Be proactive

Instead of waiting for a conflict to occur before practicing these eight simple rules, why not start today by enhancing your working relationships and applying the concepts in this article to the smaller, more manageable office issues and disagreements. After all, the goal here is to develop some momentum and patterns of success now so that you’ll be better prepared to take on any bigger, more volatile issues and conflicts in the future.

Keys:

• Be proactive both individually and as a work group, as follows:

  Individually:

  1. Solicit feedback from others on your strengths and weaknesses as it pertains to managing conflict.
  2. If there are areas to improve, enroll others in supporting you by helping you manage conflict more effectively as well as providing you with feedback when you’re not.
  3. Handle any and all issues when they occur.
  4. Periodically check in with coworkers to assess how your working relationship is going and could be improved.
  5. Role model the behavior you expect to see in others.

As a work group:

1. Schedule biannual teambuilding sessions to further develop your working relationships, established norms, group communication, and team cohesion. Allow for any specific issues brought up by or affecting the whole group to be raised as well.
2. Incorporate more humor in the workplace. Do fun activities as a work unit together periodically. You’d be surprised at the impact laughter can have on creating cohesion in a group.
3. Learn more about each other’s personalities and communication styles. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the True Colors Personality Profile are great in helping your work group better understand each other.
4. Should an incident/conflict occur within the group, don’t be afraid to debrief it with the group after it has been resolved. This will provide an opportunity to assess how it was handled and to reinforce the group norms in the future.

Conflict, if managed effectively, can be a tremendous asset in helping individuals and groups maneuver through issues, disagreements, and problems that are common in today’s workplace. Hopefully, these eight simple rules will provide sufficient guidance and incentive to help you take charge of conflict forevermore.

Article by Greg Giesen from http://www.managerwise.com/article.phtml?id=578

The 3-Step Process for Managing Even the Most Difficult Person

One of the most frequent questions that I am asked is “how do I manage difficult people?” In this short article I’m going to my reveal three-step process for managing difficult people; but before I get into the process, let’s explore some of the psychology behind difficult people.

What is a difficult person?

The best answer is that “you know one when you meet one!”

Difficult people are the small percentage of the population that just can’t seem to get along with anyone. In fact, many times people will go out of their way to avoid interacting with them because they are so unpleasant.

Sometimes difficult people know that they are difficult and sometimes they don’t. I have had more than one person who I thought was difficult ask me why other people were so hard to get along with!

To me it was obvious that they were the problem, but to them it wasn’t.

Types of difficult people.

Starting with Robert Bramson in 1981, there have been numerous attempts to classify difficult people into groups and provide guidelines for managing each group.

However, my experience working WITH difficult conflict resolution situations has taught me that it is best not to put people into categories because it removes their individuality, and that can lead to prejudices caused by misclassification. Sometimes it can even be used to provide a comfortable excuse for your own failure to be flexible enough to adapt to individual idiosyncrasies.

The best approach to managing difficult people is to understand the universal psychology behind being difficult and provide a framework that works in all situations. Let’s start by understanding why people are difficult.

Why difficult people are difficult.

There are two common reasons why people exhibit behaviors that others find to be difficult. The first reason is that they simply don’t realize how much their actions irritate other people. Many times this type of problem can be corrected simply by explaining the problem to the difficult person and perhaps providing some training. Once there is a mutual understanding of what needs to be done, they implement the changes and the problem goes away.

The second reason that difficult people are difficult is because by engaging in the behavior that makes them so hard to get along with, they get something important that they want or need. While this reason is the most challenging it is also the most common and it can be managed if you know how.

Here is my 3-step process for managing difficult people.

Step #1 – Find the gain. Ask yourself the question: “What is the difficult person getting out of this?” Keep asking the question until you come up with the answer that reveals the benefit that they get from their actions. While you are asking the question, keep in mind that to you the benefit may seem small, but to the other person what they are gaining is important enough to justify the rejection and hard feelings that result. Look at the world through their eyes, not yours.

A good example of a gain is someone who gets angry and uses their anger to control people and situations. They may even threaten you with it. Once you realize that anger is their method for meeting their need for control, you are on your way to managing your difficult person.

Keep in mind that many times the benefit of the bad behavior is so great in the mind of the difficult person that they are willing to endure bad side effects. An angry person can easily alienate family, friends, and coworkers, and many times they will feel depressed when they calm down from their anger, but they will do it time and time again because at an unconscious level it meets their need for control.

Step #2 – Break the strategy. Once you have determined the need that is being met by the difficult behavior, the next step is to make sure that they no longer get the anticipated benefit when they use the behavior. Using the example of the angry person, you must be prepared to not give in to them no matter how much they turn up the heat.

When you do this two things will happen: (1) they will do the bad behavior even more because they are confused as to why it is not working, and (2) when they realize that it no longer works, they will begin to look for a new way to get what they need. This is where you come in with step #3.

Step #3 – Fill the vacuum. When their previous bad behavior stops meeting their need it creates a vacuum, so it is important for you to have a plan in place that will provide them with a better way of meeting their need. They still have the need even if they are now confused about how to get it.

You may even elect to tell them that what they were doing will no longer work, but they can get what they want by doing something different. Continuing with the anger example, you might say: “Joe, I am no longer going to allow you to get your way by being angry. But if we can discuss this calmly, I think I can grant your request.”

Being ready to fill the vacuum is crucial to your success in managing difficult people because if you don’t fill the vacuum and give them what they need in another way, they will quickly revert back to the old habit because they don’t know what else to do.

Used together, these three steps give you a method of managing difficult people that will benefit everyone, including the difficult person.

Article by http://conflictresolutiontools.com/articles/managing-difficult-people

No matter what your conflict style, conflict brings anger. Thus anger management is an essential part of conflict management. Some guiding principles:

1. The problem isn’t anger, it’s how you manage anger.

Anger is an emotion that everyone experiences. Don’t wish it away – it contains resources of energy essential to self-protection and survival.  It gives us  the ability to respond quickly – with high energy -  to threatening situations. The goal is to manage anger so its energies are directed constructively. We do this more easily if we consider anger a useful friend requiring careful management rather than an enemy to be rid of.

2. Some people express anger internally, others express it externally.

Anger that is externally expressed is easy to see – lots of noise, quick movements, and aggressive energy. Its dangers for relationships, emotions, and health are obvious. Anger internally expressed is less visible, but carries large dangers of its own: chronic anxiety leading to stress-related illnesses and depression, relationships that die a slow, quiet death from distance and apathy, loss of hope and energy as people give up on things; periodic explosions when anger cannot be contained inside. If we only shut off or quieten expressions of anger we simply exchange one set of difficulties with another. The goal should be healthy management of anger.

3. Anger is a secondary emotion.

There is always another emotion that comes before anger. Learn to be a good detective in uncovering what that emotion is, for when you can name it, you will move to a new level of self-management. Ask yourself – what other emotions do I detect?

A clue: fear in one form or another lies behind almost all anger. Fear of injury, loss, or abandonment, fear of loss of autonomy or control, fear of embarrassment or exposure, etc.   Most people are more in touch with anger than with their fears. After all, the heat and energy of anger is more life-giving than the cold paralysis of fear. And because anger rouses and activates, it has greater capacity to assist survival. But anger can easily crowd out attention to less noisy underlying issues.  Anyone can learn to recognize the deep roots of their anger and, perhaps for the first time ever, position themselves to address it.

As you develop awareness of this primary emotion, work to understand it. Ask yourself:
- What sensations in my body do I associate with this emotion? (queasy gut, tight shoulders, sweaty palms, etc.)
- Where, when, with whom have I experienced this emotion in the past? Almost always, the emotions that trigger badly managed anger have their roots in experiences of childhood or youth.
- How did you deal with that past experience?
- What resources do you have today that you didn’t have or didn’t use back then?
Some tools you can use to put that ancient experience to rest:
- Write a letter to someone who helped create the original fear.  From a place of strength express your outrage. Do not send it; keep it for a few weeks, and when you are ready, destroy it.
- Write a letter of solidarity from yourself of today to yourself as you were in the original experience. File it, at least for a few months.
- With an understanding partner, roleplay a conversation with the source of your original anger. Be outraged and speak from a place of strength in the roleplay.
- Recognize some strength or asset that emerged in you as a result of that experience: grit, endurance, understanding, etc. No, this does not mean what happened was OK. It means rather that you are honoring your ability to not be completely defeated by hardship. Oddly, honoring strengths developed through hardship helps us rise above the past.
- Consider arranging conversations with a counselor, coach, mentor, or elder to get the support of someone wise and capable as you examine the old anger and claim the resources of who you are today.

4. Self-awareness is key to anger management.

Anger becomes a problem when we are not able to consciously make choices about what to do with it. One of the most rewarding paths to its management is simply to increase our ability to recognize its presence in us and our response to it.   The suggestions in point 3 above can help do this.   When we can consciously recognize the physical sensations that accompany anger, we are much better positioned to make good choices about what to do with our emotions.

Some of the most highly refined tools for greater awareness of inner response are found in Buddhist literature, which sees lack of awareness as the primary obstacle to spiritual growth.  Pema Chodron’s “Don’t Bite the Hook”, for example, suggests that our inner response has “a familiar smell, a familiar taste” that we can easily learn to recognize.   If we catch it early enough, she says, we can direct our response before it overwhelms us.

5. Healthy expression of anger means talking about your anger without being aggressive.

Recent research shows that expressing anger in an angry way feeds the problem. You can talk about your anger without yielding to the impulse to be aggressive or to hurt others. Say that you are angry, say why you are angry, say what other people can do to help improve things – and say these things without being hurtful, hostile or rude. If you cannot yet do this, limit your communication when you are angry so you reduce the damage to others. Follow up with talking after you have cooled down, and use the cool-down time for detective work in preparation (see 3 above) or to review communication skills that might be useful.

When you talk, a formula that often helps to frame things in a non-aggressive way is the “I message”: “I feel….when you…. because…” A similar tool is the “Impact statement”: “The impact of what you do on me is the following….”

You are more likely to have a successful experience in this conversation if you agree on a way to structure it. For example:

- Use a “talking stick” and agree that you will pass it back and forth as you speak. You can speak only when you are holding the talking stick (pen, pillow, book, etc.)

- Agree on a sequence to organize the conversation, such as: “We’ll begin by giving each person 5 minutes to explain without interruption what they are upset about. Then we’ll try to list the issues where we disagree. Third, we’ll see if there are points that we agree on. Fourth, we’ll return to where we disagree and try to resolve those.

- Agree to ground rules.  For example, agree that each person needs to repeat back in their own words what the other person has said, to the satisfaction of that person, before responding. Carry this structure for at least 15 minutes into the conversation, and agree when to relax it. The pattern is: Person A speaks, Person B repeats back. Person B speaks, Person A repeats back. Repeat and continue.

6. Make things right when you cause harm.

Hurting others is an inevitable consequence of poorly managed anger. Fortunately, most people get over such hurt pretty quickly if you are diligent about cleaning up the mess you’ve made.  Apologize, without condition. Not a cowardly “I’m sorry if I hurt you…” or a whiny, blaming “I’m sorry I said that but you were the one who started it…”

If you’ve done harm, be courageous and admit it openly, take responsibility for your own actions, and give the other person space to recover at their own timing.  “What I said was hurtful and exaggerated. I hurt you and I’m sorry.”  Know that people move at differing speeds to the point of readiness for such an exchange.
A critical point: Do not rush apology. A hasty apology is often understood by others as – and usually is – a polite form of shushing, a way of sparing the apologizer the distress of hearing a full articulation of the painful consequences of their actions.   It also positions the apologizer one convenient step away from grabbing the role of wounded one, as in  “But I already apologized, so why are you still angry?”  Offered as a hasty reaction or as a demand for forgiveness, an apology may in fact be a mechanism for evading responsibility and thus add new layers of pain.  At the very least, it likely to be perceived as such.

When you intend to take responsibility for your actions and assist healing, you have a duty to think about timing. Apologize after the one you have wounded has recovered a bit and no longer needs to vent frustration.

Consider a double apology – the first may be early and brief and signals your spirit and intention. The second one may come later, after the other person has recovered composure and is ready to forgive.   And of course sometimes it is a good idea to ask the one you have hurt: “I want to let you know that I am sorry about what I did, and I want  to say this to you when you are ready to hear it.   Is this a good time or shall I wait?”

Copyright Ron Kraybill 2009.   www.RiverhouseEpress.com.

“The problem with the world today is communication. Too much communication.”

He was a wise one, Homer. I don’t know if he actually realised when he said it how true it actually is for us all!

In every aspect of life, communication happens all around us, whether at work, home, or play. For this article we will stick with communication in business. The old marketing model of broadcasting your organisation’s message is dying. Whether through the TV, radio, publications, even brochure-like websites, broadcast or push media channels have been used by many companies to reach the masses.

In its place, we now see the growth of a different type of communication, delivered in the form of conversations. Marketing has been turned on its head by the growth in social media channels (think Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in, blogging). In this new landscape, everyone has the opportunity to engage in the conversation. We are no longer subjected to receiving messages without the right to reply. So if this social media revolution is impacting the world of marketing so dramatically, how is this affecting the internal world of a company’s culture?

I have often heard many people comment that the biggest problem in most organisations is that there is not enough communication. It seems to me that in many organisations there is often plenty of communication, but rather there aren’t enough conversations.

What I don’t mean by that is conversations in the form of gossiping by the water cooler (although these do have value!), but rather there is a lack of engagement in conversations with and between employees.

Given that online social media encourages conversations, it seems surprising that many companies have dealt with the rise in social networking by blocking access to sites on company IT systems and actively discouraging use, thinking that it mainly contributes to employees wasting their own time, and mis-using company time.

But some companies have taken different actions and embrace these amazing 21^st century technology tools that increase levels of conversation. The brilliant article recently posted on the HR Zone: http://www.hrzone.co.uk/topic/technology/social-media-still-misunderstood-management/104099 states that organisations that encourage employees to use social media in their professional and personal lives are gaining a more positive company culture:  “getting staff to talk to each other and share information [is] the biggest single benefit.”

A recent trial conducted by BT using a group of early adopters has led to the launch of its own internal social networking site for staff. The site assists staff in sharing information, knowledge, project updates and the opportunity to work on group documents, among many other benefits. http://www.computerworlduk.com/technology/development/web/news/index.cfm?newsid=20272

So back to what Homer said – too much communication yes, but not the right type of communication. To succeed as a business today management must be open and willing to engage in and encourage the art of conversation – online as well as offline (or around the water cooler!).

1.     INtention – managers who deliberately set out to undermine their employees. Driven by fear and the need to control, these managers create significant damage within an organisation. Consequently, employees may opt to play it safe in order to escape the manager’s wrath or employee turnover rates may increase.

2.    INcompetence – managers who lack training in people development and are weak at people management. This results in indecision or rigidity in decision-making – once a decision is made there is no option to change course. Alternatively, the manager is over controlling and employees feel suffocated and disempowered, leading to frustration, anger or apathy.

3.    INfidelity - managers who betray co-workers. These managers are normally good at encouraging colleagues to share confidences. However, they often get caught out, as they lack the integrity to be trustworthy or discreet and will ultimately be caught breaking confidences. Additionally, managers who constantly over promise to employees, and then fail to deliver create an environment of distrust which may be difficult to repair.

4.    INsensitivity – managers who are low in Emotional Intelligence and are unable to read the mood of their team. They lack empathy for other people’s feelings and fail to notice how their own feelings affect those around them.

5.     INtrusion – this is often a manager who is extremely charming and has the ability to get subordinates to repeatedly go the extra mile. They are prone to communicating how important each task is to the company and how successful execution of each task is valuable to an employee’s career. This often leads to last minute requests to take on extra work, or repeatedly working late. This intrudes on the employee’s personal life and often leaves the employee feeling that they have no choice but to comply.

6.    INstitutional forces – Company policies and procedures can create pain by simply being in place, and then not being put into practice, or by being implemented in an ad hoc fashion, implying preferential treatment for some employee groups. Policies which create resentment with certain groups of employees, such as “no trousers” policies for women. Increasing organisational legislation around IT policies can also impact employees – “big brother” tactics such as tracking employee emails and voicemail can display lack of trust by the organisation.

7.    INevitability – downsizing or restructuring has become inevitable for many companies, especially during the recent recession. Some companies have had no option but to downsize their workforce. Restructuring is also common when new senior executives come into post, such as a CEO who wants to bring in their own executive team. The pain associated with these changes often impacts employees who have worked for the employer for a long time. Additionally, the lack of job security creates feelings of anger, frustration or disappointment, leading to a decline in employee morale – that can take a considerable amount of time to rebuild.

An eighth IN could be INsight – people who have influence and now have knowledge about what causes pain in their workplace and don’t do anything about it…

According to the 2007 CIPD Report, Managing Conflict at Work, behaviour/conduct was named as the biggest cause of conflict across all industry sectors (manufacturing and production, private sector, not for profit and public services). Consequently, behaviour/conduct complaints led to the highest number of employment tribunal cases, followed by cases dealing with issues of sex, race or disability discrimination and bullying and harassment. A further CIPD/OPP survey dated October 2008 went on to support the findings of the 2007 report, by citing warring egos and personality clashes, as the main reasons for conflict at work, accounting for 40% of grievances. In 2008/09 a total of 151,000 employment tribunal claims were lodged.

The 2008 CIPD report goes on to comment that only 30% of companies surveyed invest in either conflict management or mediation skills training, and interestingly, those who do invest, experience less tribunal claims.  The pressure to manage conflict at work is often being left to company HR departments. Although many HR professionals are trained to manage conflict, it is not reasonable – or commercially intelligent – to expect the HR department to assume full responsibility for defusing conflict. As it encourages a culture where HR is seen as the middle man between management and direct reports. This is unproductive as it creates greater tension and weakens team spirit, ultimately leading to lower productivity and potential client dissatisfaction. Additionally, it means that employees do not learn how to interact more effectively and become more responsible for their behaviour.

The most logical step is to provide employees, line managers and directors with the necessary skills to manage conflict.

Employees need to have an understanding of how to manage conflict, and to be aware of how their behaviour/conduct can contribute to its creation. Most companies build successful teams by pulling together people with different skillsets and different personalities, being able to deal with difference is an essential workplace skill. Conflict stems from not accepting difference. The more different an individual is from us, the more likely we will find them difficult to understand.

The Jones & Brinkert comprehensive conflict-coaching model states that there are 3 perspectives that contribute to how conflict emerges in our relationships at work. These perspectives are:

1. Identity - is about thinking that something or someone is stopping us from being who we are, or who we want to be. Or how our behaviour/conduct is portrayed as damaging the identity of another.
2. Emotion - is a word that many people dislike, especially in the workplace, as it is seen as being too touchy feely or a private/personal matter. However, everyone experiences emotions, they are quite literally an “Energy in Motion”! They are also at the core of conflict, and are our measure of how important something is to us. Emotions motivate and act as signposts to reasons why we, and others, act in a particular way.
3. Power – is all about influence, and how we use it to achieve what we need from a situation. Once the other perspectives are understood, the ability to influence is greatly improved.

So what are the options when companies want to reduce conflict?

• Be strategic; do not wait until you are facing a crisis. Prevent conflict before it starts: intervene in small problems before they grow in to larger and more costly issues. According to the Mediation Training International Institute:
  • “80% of workplace conflicts that reach the formal dispute resolution system could have been resolved early, quickly, and inexpensively . . . if the employees directly involved had known how.”

• Conflict management should become a core competency for senior managers, thereby providing a performance indicator measuring how effectively an individual manages conflict. Once conflict management becomes part of a performance framework, it is more likely to become an acceptable part of an employee’s job role, and as a result, conflict is less likely to derail organisational performance.

• Introduce conflict management or mediation skills training in to the company’s training programme. Alternatively, depending on an employees learning style, and/or preference, offer conflict coaching as a one-to–one learning intervention, to support employees that learn more effectively through a coaching partnership.

According to the 2008 Survey, the top three benefits of managing conflict effectively are:

1. A reduction in the number of formal disciplinary and grievance cases
2. Improvement in Team Morale
3. Improvement in Team Performance/Productivity

Finally, ignoring, or devaluing the impact of conflict, should not be an option.  Jim Collins, author of Good to Great - Why Some Companies Make the Leap … And Others Don’t (2001) notes:

“The builders of great companies are clock builders, not time tellers. They understand that in order to build a truly great company, they must concentrate primarily on building the organization.”

As we know, people are at the foundation of any organisation: people are relational, and the healthier the relationships at work, the healthier the organisation.

1. Competing – defined as the style which seeks a win-lose outcome and is more concerned with needs of the self rather than that of the other party. This style can be seen as aggressive. It can be appropriate when issues are very important and when there is less flexibility  within the decision making process, which can lead to good quality decisions. One of the downsides is that it can diminish an individual’s power over time and create distance between people as others are less willing to speak up and take action.

2. Collaborating - this style means that both parties focus on the concerns and issues of each party and value them equally. It requires a high level of trust and the ability of both parties to recognise the needs of the other party, which demands insight. A disadvantage is that is can be a lengthy process and it requires people to have a high level of interpersonal skills, which doesn’t come naturally to everybody.

3. Compromising - this style shows average concern from both parties for both self and other and includes flexibility, resolving disputes reasonably quickly and doesn’t require a high level of trust. A disadvantage is that it can close the door on the possibility of a collaborative way to solve problems.

4. Avoiding – this style demonstrates a low concern for both self and other with an individual withdrawing from dealing with the conflict. This can be a reasonable tactic when the conflict is of low significance and it makes sense to take a step away. However, avoidance can  inflame tensions and lead to further damaging the relationship.

5. Accomodating – this styles shows a lack of concern for self and more concern for the other. It can be useful should the accomodator be detached from the outcome and the issue is of greater importance to the other party. However, if one party is repeatedly accomodating it can lead to the build up of stress and anger especially if the other party doesn’t display a similar accomodating approach.

What is your approach? peace.mennolink.org/cgi-bin/conflictstyle/inventory.cgi