As managers, leaders and top executives within your organization you’ve got to kill the conflicts in your workplace first before dysfunction takes hold. 

Read the entire story here!

Technorati Tags: Business Conflict, Conflict in Workplace, Conflict Strategies

Experiencing conflict at your workplace? Check out the full video at http://bit.ly/cTjbun and resolve it today!

Duration : 0:2:0

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If conflict is a beer bottle hitting the mirror over the bar then perhaps these telltale signs are to subtle. But by conflict we mean behaviors resulting in less that optimal cooperation – stress in other words, then there are clearly signs we should recognize.

Depending on the people involved simply the act of avoiding each other is a conflict is brewing tip off. Naturally making threats is a sign that all is not right and that if things keep going the way they’re going something bad is going to happen!

Below are some workplace conflict resolution posts - events you may want to take notice of – where a lot more is covered than the role of facial expressions an behavior.

While we have to recognize the presence or potential of conflict before we can do something about it, we also need to know what, in terms of workplace conflict resolution strategies we should employ. Here are some.

• Win Us » Workplace Conflict Resolution: What s Creating Workplace … – HOME Win Us Click on the network recorded live! Replaceable Text Workplace Conflict Resolution: What. Dig It   |   Add To Del. A radio interviewer recently asked me if I thought there was more conflict in the workplace today than in the past.

• Workplace Conflict Resolution Begins With Identification of … - When you think of conflict – what do you think of first, the cause or the effects? When you think about workplace conflict – what comes to your mind first – discomfort, embarrassment, tears, agitation, & frustration, or money being …

• Registration now open for March conflict resolution retreat – A few more posts on this topic:. March 2009 conflict zen retreat; Your next step: reserve your retreat lodging; Conflict Zen retreats; Events; Upcoming workplace conflict resolution events.

• Workplace Conflict Resolution Strategies – Workplace conflict resolution strategies may seem like an esoteric topic for a consultant to write on, but I want to share a secret with you: sometimes there’s conflict—boatloads of internal conflict—that gets in the way of employees …

Technorati Tags: Conflict in Workplace, Workplace Conflict Resolution

The art of managing disagreement is driven by the ability to have the parties actively engaged with the facilitator and with each other around finding a mutually agreeable solution to the problem. 

They must trust the facilitator and the process.  It is important to keep differences constructive and to work for collaborative discovery of solutions based on commitment, trust and cooperation. 

When parties are engaged disagreement opens the door to consideration of options that can result in integrated decision making and optimal outcomes.
 
  Conflict management is more than just problem solving.  Ideally it also addresses the relationships and feelings of those involved in a dispute. 

Effective conflict management incorporates both a concrete solution and a sense of emotional resolve.

  Engagement is a way to integrate thinking and feeling – head and heart – and can play a important role in constructively resolving differences.

Read the entire article here.

Technorati Tags: Business Conflict, Conflict in Workplace, conflict solutions ohio, Conflict Strategies, emotions in conflict

Bonuses are a fact of business life. Last year the Guardian newspaper calculated that the cash rewards paid to London’s financial chiefs comfortably outstripped the UK’s entire transport budget.

With such large sums at stake, envy is bound to raise its ugly head, never a good thing for company morale. So how should you decide who gets how much? Steven J. Brams suggests a method that’s not only fair, but also encourages honesty.

What’s a fair share?

One of the most difficult problems managers face is how to allocate bonuses to members of a team when there is scant information on the contribution of each member to the team’s success.

It shows how an algorithm can be used to determine how bonuses (if they still exist!) can be allocated to employees, which a mediator could apply in the workplace.

Take a look at this most interesting and useful tool for measuring – how much you or they are worth.

Technorati Tags: Business Conflict, Conflict in Workplace, Conflict Strategies, Steven J Brams

Read the who story …

http://mediationworksblog.com/index.php/2009/03/16/how-to-handle-backstabbers-at-work-five-keys-to-manage-their-bad-behavior/

And be sure to log on and leave your comments – your own experiences having the knife stuck in by those you thought you could trust at work.

Technorati Tags: back stabbing, backstabbing at work, Business Conflict, Conflict in Workplace

If you remember the often quoted phrase from Lewis Carroll in his treatise on real life, Alice in Wonderland, “I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” then you know what it’s like when something you said gets taken out of context and reinterpreted – creating conflict where none was intended.

How many times have you had a thought or a feeling, based on a comment received – which you naturally screened through your own automatic filter “what did he mean by that”, in an attempt to sort what was said from what you think was meant?

It seems that every inbound communication is subject to interpretation beyond the actual words used based on your history with the person involved, your mood, their attitude, and your perception of what you think they believe is it for them.

This instantaneous decoding formula, applied to every communication uniquely, creates a filter on the fly that allows you to respond in the way you feel will be most accurate under the circumstances.

Whether or not you actually interpreted what they said and what they meant – remember the old expression “garbage in garbage out” – determines whether you actually understand how you should respond to them.

When I have a thought or a feeling and attempt to communicate it with someone else I use the words I think, based on my automatic screening process, accurately communicate what I want them to hear.

Naturally the interference that results – between  what I think my words mean, their screening process decoding their interpretation of the words based on how I have used them before and what they typically mean, and what each of us are expecting it all to mean – really makes me wonder how we are ever able to actually carry on a meaningful conversation.

Since 99.99% of our communications are meaningless the effects of this multidimensional instantaneous two way screen, encode, transmit, receive, decode, screen, understand process – does not matter a lot.

If we are talking about last night’s ball game or next week’s party – we will take the time to sort out our communications until we are all clear about what’s being said.

Unfortunately our workplace communications have the additional baggage associated with our past relationships of cooperation, competition, and our natural desire to get over on the other person. The resulting miscommunications lead to conflict which leads to a reduction in our individual, team, and organizational effectiveness.
             
Is there a simple way to defuse the resulting conflicts in workplace? Is it necessary that every miscommunication related conflict be dealt with on purpose in a formal way? Or do we need an informal “workplace conflict resolution” process? On the other hand do we need any kind of conflict resolution process at all? As always, it depends.

Ideally we would respond diplomatically and tactfully where we feel a simple explanation of what we are trying to communicate seems to be making the other person uncomfortable. Asking them to repeat back to you what they heard to make sure they are actually hearing what you meant is a simple and yet very effective diffuser of future conflict.

Do they even care about what you’re saying? And how can you deal with the person without further igniting an already volatile situation? Your own answers to these questions will tell you whether a next step beyond more clearly defined discussion points are likely to be required.

For some of us it is more difficult than others to respond diplomatically, tactfully and respectfully when there seems to be a misunderstanding brewing – we expect them to try harder to understand what we’re getting at.

If handled correctly a simple willingness to open up and at least share responsibility for being better understood may be the most dynamic and powerful tool you can use when communicating with a coworker. Typically, individuals are more likely to respond to a respectful approach better than any other.

It is well documented that when each party to a communication really wants to clearly understand what the other person means by the words they are using – where these two people share goodwill toward one another, an environment can be quickly created and easily maintained that fosters cooperation in all things.

Like anything that is planted in fertile soil, tended to, nourished, and fed regularly – shared goals for the future will over take and eventually crowd out all miscommunications, misunderstandings, and the resulting conflict in workplace.

Technorati Tags: Business Conflict, Conflict in Workplace, Conflict Strategies, Workplace Conflict Resolution