Myths v. facts – Happy Conflict Resolution Day!

My blood pressure went up when I read this article,  5 Signs of a Toxic Workplace That Should Be Stopped Immediately.   Instead of exhorting leaders and management to detoxify their workplaces. Marcel Schwantes declares that it is the employees’ responsibility to deal with other toxic employees. I disagree completely. It rests with an organization’s management…

NEWSLETTER EDITION: September 2018 When emotions are running high or you feel threatened or attacked, it can be difficult to take a step back from the conversation or conflict and reflect. It’s easy to continue fueling the conflict and go around in circles, because our emotions build and feed the argument. Defensive communication is our…

All leaders have to manage conflict in their organizations. I’ve distilled some key points that you can apply immediately from Mark Gerzon’s Leading Through Conflict:  How Successful Leaders Transform Differences into  Opportunities.  Hope you find this helpful. How to Solve Tough Challenges that Threaten Your Organization We at Alternative Resolutions have spent many years working with…

NEWSLETTER EDITION: JUNE 2018 There is a concept in Japan called kaizen, which means “continual improvement.” It is the philosophy that large-scale change can happen via small-scale, incremental actions. Let’s look at this concept further and how it can apply to conflict resolution. Change does not have to be massive or occur all at once….

NEWSLETTER EDITION: APRIL 2018 With all of the attention of the #metoo movement, I thought I’d examine other offensive behavior, short of illegal sexual harassment, that makes work life unbearable. Robert Sutton discusses bullying and other offensive behaviors in his book[1], The No Asshole Rule: Building A Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. Jerks…