CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Assess and Address Root Causes of Conflicts
Conflicts are everywhere. Yet most are avoided because many of us don’t want to start a conversation for fear of starting a fight. Our conflict management work uses a wide variety of tools and processes to assess and address the root causes of conflicts. We have done this work for over two decades, helping hundreds of clients resolve issues.
Take it with a grin of salt.
Yogi Berra
CASE STUDY
Managing Conflict in a School-Wide Change Effort
The Challenge
How could we help a school principal build buy in for a change after he had offended many teachers and half the school was looking for a new job?
The Story
After meeting to fully understand the issues, we designed a 90-minute meeting during which the principal first apologized for some of his unskillful presentation of the change, and then clarified aspects of the change that were unclear buy negotiable. The staff then formed groups (without the principal) to brainstorm and prioritized what they would need from a process to move forward with the change. Suggestions (such as a longer time frame for implementation) were then prioritized and passed onto a change leadership team that had been nominated at the meeting.
The Outcome
"Thank you so much for facilitating our staff meeting. It seems as though you have gotten us over a hump so that at least we are now moving forward and are no longer stuck. I appreciate the thoroughness with which you approached our situation. I'm sure we will use you again next school year!"
Steve Crofter, Academy School
"The terrific feedback about your work with the board keeps coming. Several people said that the ability to have a healthy and productive conversation about the emeritus issue was huge – they didn’t think it would be possible – and they feel a huge weight is being lifted. Truly awesome!"
Michelle Knapik
Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation
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