Scott Vivian - Workplace Conflict Resolution Essentials For Dummies

Workplace Conflict Resolution Essentials For Dummies ®

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E very day in offices, retail stores, factories and any number of other workplaces, people are having conflicts with co-workers. It’s normal, natural and nothing to fear. When handled properly, conflict can actually create positive changes and new opportunities in your organisation. Successfully making the shift in your perspective from seeing only the negative in disagreements to seeing the prospect for positive change is the first step to resolving difficulties.

To find positive outcomes in what on the surface looks like a negative situation, you have to become skilled at calming the infernos by helping employees through discussions that prove to them that they can solve their own issues. Become a coach for your team and colleagues – someone they can trust to bring the real and right issues to the table for effective problem solving.

If you can broaden your perspective to include the other person’s point of view, you’re sure to come out of the dispute with a better working relationship. Being at the centre of controversy is never a good idea for anyone, so decide to use the uneasy situation as an opportunity to improve systems, relationships, and your credibility.

In this book, I tell you what the most common causes of workplace conflict are and how to address them by using a proven mediation method and philosophy. And remember: Every story always has more than one side.

This book is a tool intended to help managers (or anyone who has a job) work through conflict with peers, subordinates and even bosses. It’s primarily aimed at those employees in organisations who find themselves negotiating difficulties without the benefit of having professional conflict resolution or mediation experience.

Although my focus is on how to facilitate conflict resolution, if you’re the person experiencing conflict, this book outlines the kinds of structures that may be in place to support you, and what will be expected of you during each step of the process. Throughout the book, I also highlight the kinds of attitudes (such as good communication, getting to the underlying issues of the conflict and taking personal responsibility in finding a solution) that can help everyone avoid workplace conflict, no matter what level.

The chapters are chock-full of facilitation techniques and tools that come from successful conflict resolution experts, delivered in a way that’s easy to understand and ready for you to apply right away.

To help make this book easier to navigate, I include the following conventions:

I introduce new terms in italics and then define them.

I use bold text to highlight key words in bulleted lists.

I’m assuming you have a job, paid or volunteer, and that you interact with people. I’m also assuming you have some sort of responsibility – be it keeping the line moving at the manufacturing plant or trying to keep your reputation intact as the star manager in the strongest department of an international corporation. And I’m thinking you’re currently experiencing some trouble. You may be sick and tired of a conflict between two of your employees, you may be bickering with a colleague, or perhaps you’re at a loss as to what to do about the problems between you and your boss. My final assumption? I’m guessing you want to do something about it.

Throughout the book you’ll notice icons in the page margins to signal something I want you to pay particular attention to. Here are the icons I’ve used and what each represents.

If I know an easier way to do something or have an idea for creating a better working environment now and in the future, this icon tells you that.

I use this icon to flag some important information that you don’t want to forget.

This icon alerts you to common blunders that you want to avoid.