Conflict Resolution

Like you, we have seen entire businesses go down the drain because two or three people (or departments) were unwilling or unable to have an awkward, honest conversation. On-going conflict drains energy, strains loyalty, retards productivity and crushes the human spirit.

We take a slightly different approach to conflict. We do not suggest you pursue "conflict management," which we have found is impossible anyway. Conflict management implies that you could get to the state where you wouldn't have it anymore. Not possible. Nor do we advocate "conflict resolution." If you all you want is resolution, it's fairly easy: the boss (or an expert) decides and informs the organization who is right and who is wrong, and everyone goes forth with the conflict "resolved." But you know what happens next. . . Since the root causes of the conflict have not been understood and addressed, it emerges somewhere else, usually bigger and even more destructive.

We re-orient our clients to first look to see if the conflict might be an important "message" from reality that needs to be learned from. It usually is. If so, its lessons need to be deeply appreciated and then applied to the business or operation to create new ways of getting things done. You can get to the place where conflict is not seen as a problem to be solved but as a lesson to be learned from.

Contact us and we can help you start to use conflict as a breakthrough opportunity.