We spend a lot of time wringing our hands over the problems that "others" have in our lives. The Board isn't strategic enough. The boss doesn't understand me. That department over there is not cooperative or competent. My spouse doesn't listen. All of that may be true, but it's still up to you to figure [...]
Continue ReadingConflict
The title of this post, of course, is the reverse of the popular phrase, "I'll believe it when I see it." In other words, until you show me proof, I'm not sure I'm going to believe you. That is fine, and it reflects our cultural bias towards objectivity. As I explained in my post about [...]
Continue ReadingTwo of my very favorite people and thinkers about things organizational are Joe Gerstandt and Jason Lauritsen. Together they to the "talent anarchy" blog, and their most recent conversation has been about conflict. Jason's last post is particularly awesome, and in it he advocates becoming a student of conflict and reading some books about it [...]
Continue ReadingI was delivering a conflict resolution training program the other day, and one of the participants told me that she absolutely hated conflict. There are lots of people in this boat, of course, but I asked her more about it, and she explained that when people disagree over ideas or what to do or how [...]
Continue ReadingA big part of conflict resolution is problem solving, and one of the biggest parts of problem solving is defining the problem. I was reminded of this when I came across this great comic over on this blog: We throw up our hands all the time about what's not working in the workplace, and the [...]
Continue ReadingI was in Florida last week testing out a pilot training program on managing generations and conflict in the workplace. It was the first time I really combined these two topics into a training session. It's a lot of material to cover, obviously, and it was a challenge to do it all, even with a [...]
Continue ReadingA few weeks ago I wrote about the "discourse of complaining." While I am no fan of whining, I like that phrase because it reminds us that complaints actually are serious things–it is a way to identify the things you need less of or more of in order to be more productive, happy, fulfilled, successful, [...]
Continue ReadingI was very pleased with the turnout for my conflict session. Many thanks to those of you who sat on the floor or, as this photo indicates, actually stood in the hall to watch my session (I was already on Tip 3 when that was taken!). As I mentioned in Toronto, the handouts I provided [...]
Continue ReadingI noticed in my Google Analytics the other day that one of the most popular keywords for finding my blog is the phrase "what does respect look like." I did a brief post on that in October 2007, pointing out that when I facilitate, the group frequently asks for "treat each other with respect" as [...]
Continue Reading
Jamie is a Vice President at MSP where he leads the consulting division. 
