Changing Organizational Culture One Person At A Time

When overcoming issues of trust in a relationship, the greatest successes are seen when all parties go in with a positive intention to collaborate.  This includes the desire to remain open and truthful, and to take accountability for unintended consequences, as well as to work to resolve all issues, not only your own.  Being truly able to listen, understand, and problem solve together, along with a commitment to be transparent and to collaborate, will create a strong bond and an even stronger outcome for all parties.  The outcome will be that all parties will feel their needs have been both understood and met. Radical Collaboration is a great approach for teaching leaders how to achieve this collaborative approach. This blog article by  Horacio Falcão at Insead  talks to exactly these points.

In recent years, increasing numbers of clients are asking for help mediating disputes between individuals whose relationships are having a knock-on effect with their teams, the wider organization, and inevitably, their clients and customers. Most frequently, these conflicts result from a confusion of roles and responsibilities, thereby creating tension in decision making, agreeing the scope of responsibility, and taking accountability between individuals.  This confusion, coupled with tight deadlines, large work loads and functional and cross functional accountabilities, leads to chaos and frequently, poor leadership.  Yet it is in this state that individuals can choose to make successful or disastrous decisions, or be guided into previously unthought-of realms of possibilities and solutions.  It is here that the role of mediation or if possible, self-mediation (a core leadership skill) is a requirement. The cost of conflict in companies often goes unrecognized as...

Do unto others as they would be done unto, not as you would have them do unto you There are two qualities almost every organization I have worked in have in common when I first arrive. Ineffective communications and an abundance of negative behaviors.  Meetings dissolve into battlegrounds, department heads and their teams define fiefdoms, political behaviors abound, and ineffective and misunderstood communications suck energy, and sacrifice efficiency for leverage. A large component of this behavior is founded on one factor.  Misunderstanding. According to a 2014 Inc. Magazine article, “office workers spend more than two and a half hours per week trying to resolve conflict, which translates into $359 billion in losses for U.S. companies every year....” People generally want to work in an environment where they feel they can be effective, and enjoy working with their colleagues.  Frequently, however, this is not the case.   A person starts out t...