Conflict Resolution & Prevention Methodology
A Tool for Building a “Breakthrough” Culture
Everyone experiences conflict. For most of us it seems inevitable. We may avoid it as much as possible. We may wade into conflict to gain advantage or dominance. Sometimes we are so overcome by the roadblock that we are unable to make any useful headway.
Whatever our strategy for dealing with workplace conflict, it often results in upset between one or more of the people involved. It tears down trust in the key relationships of our work lives.
In our work teams, conflict disrupts the flow of progress, reducing productivity and costing us both time and money. Often we push on despite that the conflict is not really resolved for everyone. We just move on — with less efficiency and creativity, compromising truly optimal outcomes.
In the presence of unresolved conflict we feel less satisfied. Without effective tools we just muddle through the best we can. Chronically unresolved conflict can turn into resentment…or even resignation.
Instead of a problem to avoid …
conflict is really a signal to be proactive, to lead others effectively.
What if we held conflict as a creative tension, something to embrace to allow us to perform even better? What if we used each situation to gain more competence as leaders and as teams? Imagine for a moment….every time a work flow or relationship interruption occurs, you and your organization instantly see that it is a signal to move into discovery versus complaint.
Wise leaders proactively address this inevitable situation, plan for it, and mitigate it by offering their management teams, employees and key vendors a way to respond to conflict effectively.
“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them.
Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.”
― R. Buckminster Fuller
Putting this Fuller innovation into practice, we have designed, implemented and measured the value of our conflict mitigation tool. Through the use of this tool leaders discover how to bring forth new workplace cultures that leverage conflict, breakdowns, upsets, slowdowns, and interruptions to create a truly vibrant and highly productive environment.
By studying the conversations and competencies of top-performing leaders, we learned how they dealt with conflict. And then, we went beyond these “best practices” to discover something new. We found we could bypass the mire of personal conversations that have little to do with sustainable resolutions. We developed instead a set of questions to move us to the unspoken – but fundamental – drivers of the conflict. After extensive field testing, we created a visual map and simple methodology that nearly anyone could learn and apply.
With powerful visual guidance tools (similar to a GPS)
we guide every individual in your organization to approach conflict as high-performing leaders do.
Research shows us that top-performing teams listen to one another differently than average-performing teams, especially during conflicts. As a result of different listening habits, their responses are more effective and their results soar. LPC offers a simple visual tool that distinguishes typical listening from advanced listening. Using advanced listening skills we quickly begin to alter our conversations to become more effective.
Our team is committed to radically shifting the way people in organizations think about conflict. It’s a given that our standards for coordinating action with others and with ourselves will be violated from time to time. The question is, “What if we became highly competent at leveraging the interruption to produce more effective ways of creating results?”
We envision organizations’ enabling healthy conflict to emerge because individuals are competent at turning conflicts to possibilities for higher performance. We enroll team leaders to become role models for leveraging conflicts. Once they are “walking the talk” leaders can offer our tools so that their teams can shift how they respond to conflict.
Through the use of this methodology organizations produce quarterly results with less interruption, less cost, and less workplace stress. People have more fun at work and results soar.