Genuine Contact™ Program: Processes for Reducing the Cost of Conflict - Part II

Dates: March 5-6, 2009
Where: Val-David, Quebec
Module 3 of the Genuine Contact Program

Additional Information: info@mbureau.com
Registration Form: http://www.integralvisions.com/sessions.htm

Be prepared to be surprised at the results! I recently worked with a client to estimate the costs for a year of conflict in this organization. Depending upon the factors that we included, the annual cost for the conflict in this small team (fewer than 10 people) was estimated to be from $250,000 to $500,000! And this conflict had been raging for 3 or 4 years!! Would these numbers motivate earlier resolution of workplace conflicts in your organization? While there are both humane and morale reasons for our work to create healthy organizational systems or Conscious Open Space Organizations, these sorts of numbers provide eye-opening financial reasons for doing so.

There are many wonderful programs and resources such as those from the Mediation Training Institute International available to support you in working more effectively with conflict in your organization and hopefully reducing or preventing these costs. As a facilitator of mediation programs at Dalhousie University College of Continuing Education and Registered Practitioner in Dispute Resolution, I am constantly learning and developing my skills and personal ability to journey with individuals and organizations to bring new and healthier futures into reality.

The Genuine Contact™ Program processes (especially Whole Person Process Facilitation and Working With Open Space Technology) have enhanced my competency in working to resolve conflicts, particularly group conflicts. These collective processes invite people to open to and develop their natural human capacity to create new futures. I am particularly excited by the potential of this program to support the emergence of capacity in organizations to sustain health and balance both for individuals and their teams – lowering the cost of conflict and increasing the success of the organization on an ongoing basis. Birgitt and Ward Williams, creators of the Genuine Contact™ Program, call these high performing organizations Conscious Open Space Organizations. These simple meeting processes (OST and WPPF) can be learned and used frequently within any organization. Why not have a successful organization and provide a nourishing environment in which the human spirit can flourish creatively and fulfill its potential? I’d like to work in such an organization. Would you?

Workplaces and communities need new collective practices like these to work more effectively. Researchers Duxbury and Higgins reported that between 1991 and 2001 conditions have “seriously deteriorated” for many Canadian workers.1 A 2004 report from Warren Shepell suggested that changes in Canadian public sector workplaces have resulted in 900% increases in anger rates over the past three years and a doubling of depression rates.2 Another report from Health Canada showed that work-life conflict is adding at least an extra $6 billion a year to Canada’s annual healthcare costs3. I want to see things change! It doesn’t have to be like this!

So with this passion I seek out leaders who will want to see things change. There are many leaders who see the pain of the people who work in their organizations and want to see changes too. But they don’t know what to do about it! They may be personally suffering from the conflicts and stresses to the point that they have little energy left themselves. What are the costs to a manager of making the choice to do something about the conflicts in the team and take action to change things? Where do they get the personal energy and resources needed to take this bold step?

more tomorrow...

Source : Donna Clark : http://www.emergentfutures.ca/articles/Conflict.pdf
Photo :http://www.sxc.hu/photo/704013

Genuine Contact™ Program: Processes for Reducing the Cost of Conflict - Part I

Dates: March 5-6, 2009
Where: Val-David, Quebec
Module 3 of the Genuine Contact Program

Additional Information: info@mbureau.com
Registration Form: http://www.integralvisions.com/sessions.htm

The story is familiar. People in a work group complain about backstabbing, brutal conversations, threats and retaliations. They blame each other, personalize conflicts, and won’t talk with each other. People are not invited to contribute, if they are, they offer the absolute minimum. Little problems quickly escalate into a major crisis as tempers flare quickly. People don’t know what is going on so they fill in the blanks creating an active rumour mill. People report feeling angry, battered, and worn out. They may even say they hate some of the people on the team. Reprimands go on personnel files, grievances against managers are filed, unplanned absences and sick days increase dramatically, and individuals start to leave the team for other jobs. The team is stuck in the cycle of conflict and it can seem like a cancer that keeps on growing.

Miraculously, the group seems to get the job done. People keep trying to do their best because they like the type of work, they like their clients, and they want to do the best they can. This gets harder every day! Internal conflict starts to bleed into client relationships. Service suffers, mistakes get made, and clients may even be brought into the disputes. Opportunities for innovation and better service are only a dream.

The Genuine Contact™ Program offers methods and processes to achieve organizational health and balance and to create conditions in an organization for lowering conflict and the resulting personal and organizational costs. This holistic approach for business success is simple and works with the wisdom and intelligence of the individuals in the organization to create and sustain an effective and successful organization.

What does it take to engage leaders in organizations to do something about conflict before it escalates and hurts both staff and clients? If the personal and emotional costs of conflict are not enough to motivate changes in the system, then can financial costs sound the alarm?

Engaging the attention of leaders to invest in creating a healthy and balanced organization often requires some proof or some way of measuring the return on investment. Recently I discovered a tool that has the potential to draw their attention to the “bottom line” and estimate the financial cost of conflict. That tool is the “Dana Measure of Financial Cost of Organizational Conflict”. It is available from the Mediation Training Institute International at http://www.mediationworks.com/dmi/toolbox.htm. They provide a PowerPoint presentation and an on-line calculator that can help you quantify the cost of conflict in your organization. The calculator includes the following cost factors:

1. wasted time/opportunity cost of wasted time
2. reduced decision quality
3. lost employees
4. restructuring
5. sabotage/theft/damage
6. lowered job motivation
7. lost work time
8. health costs

more tomorrow...

Source : Donna Clark : http://www.emergentfutures.ca/articles/Conflict.pdf
Photo :http://www.sxc.hu/photo/872361

Conflict is Normal: Anticipating Conflicts Likely to Arise in the Workplace

Dates: March 5-6, 2009
Where: Val-David, Quebec
Module 3 of the Genuine Contact Program

Additional Information: info@mbureau.com
Registration Form: http://www.integralvisions.com/sessions.htm

Consider your own work environment for a moment:

* What are some key sources of conflict in our workplace?
* When do they tend to occur?
* How do people respond to these conflicts as they arise?
* When we solve problems, do we do so for the moment, or do we put in place systems for addressing these types of concerns in the future?

In reflecting upon your answers to these questions, you may begin to understand what we mean by anticipating conflicts likely to arise in the workplace: Normal, healthy organizations will experience their share of conflict, and workplaces experiencing a certain amount of dysfunction will experience it in greater quantities. Anticipating conflicts is useful in either situation for transforming these situations into opportunities for growth and learning. Consider…

* Are there seasonal peaks in our workload that tend to occur annually?
-Chart the occurrence of such challenges, and consider whether they can be managed as a normal period of stress and transition. For example, a school had a large population of students who arrived after long bus rides without breakfast, who tended to arrive at school ready to fight. The school identified 10 minutes at the start of the day to give these students a healthy snack, and worked with teachers to pull out students who weren't yet ready for school before they became disruptive. After food and a little counseling, students entered their classrooms in a better frame of mind (and body) to participate.

* Do we have channels for expressing normal problems and concerns in a predictable, reliable manner?
-Staff meeting should be used as a tool for effective problem-solving in a range of situations, including anticipated conflicts. If such channels are perceived by staff as closed, unsafe, and non-productive, they will be replaced by gossip, 'end runs' and back-biting.

* Are there certain factors in the environment that make problems worse, especially at times of conflict?
-Take stock of your processes for managing during stressful times. Look at how phones are routed, noise is managed, client lines are queued, distractions are managed, etc. Often, our response during times of stress is to meet less frequently, because 'we have no time to meet.' And we continue to do things the way we've been doing them, because 'we have no time to create new procedures.' This approach dooms us to repeat the same errors, rather than to learn from the opportunities. Examine your systems for managing problems, including dispute resolution systems, and use times of "harmony" to identify process improvements that can be implemented in times of stress.

Source: Harry Webne-Behrman
Photo: www.sxc.hu/photo/968515

Definitions and Assumptions About Conflict

Dates: March 5-6, 2009
Where: Val-David, Quebec
Module 3 of the Genuine Contact Program


Additional Information: info@mbureau.com
Registration Form: http://www.integralvisions.com/sessions.htm

Conflict can be defined as a disagreement through which the parties involved perceive a threat to their needs, interests or concerns. Within this simple definition there are several important understandings that emerge:

Disagreement - Generally, we are aware there is some level of difference in the positions of the two (or more) parties involved in the conflict. But the true disagreement versus the perceived disagreement may be quite different from one another. In fact, conflict tends to be accompanied by significant levels of misunderstanding that exaggerate the perceived disagreement considerably. If we can understand the true areas of disagreement, this will help us solve the right problems and manage the true needs of the parties.

Parties involved - There are often disparities in our sense of who is involved in the conflict. Sometimes, people are surprised to learn they are a party to the conflict, while other times we are shocked to learn we are not included in the disagreement. On many occasions, people who are seen as part of the social system (e.g., work team, family, company) are influenced to participate in the dispute, whether they would personally define the situation in that way or not. In the above example, people very readily "take sides" based upon current perceptions of the issues, past issues and relationships, roles within the organization, and other factors. The parties involved can become an elusive concept to define.

Perceived threat - People respond to the perceived threat, rather than the true threat, facing them. Thus, while perception doesn't become reality per se, people's behaviors, feelings and ongoing responses become modified by that evolving sense of the threat they confront. If we can work to understand the true threat (issues) and develop strategies (solutions) that manage it (agreement), we are acting constructively to manage the conflict.

Needs, interests or concerns - There is a tendency to narrowly define "the problem" as one of substance, task, and near-term viability. However, workplace conflicts tend to be far more complex than that, for they involve ongoing relationships with complex, emotional components. Simply stated, there are always procedural needs and psychological needs to be addressed within the conflict, in addition to the substantive needs that are generally presented. And the durability of the interests and concerns of the parties transcends the immediate presenting situation. Any efforts to resolve conflicts effectively must take these points into account.

So, is it still a simple definition of conflict? We think so, but we must respect that within its elegant simplicity lies a complex set of issues to address. Therefore, it is not surprising that satisfactory resolution of most conflicts can prove so challenging and time consuming to address.

Conflicts occur when people (or other parties) perceive that, as a consequence of a disagreement, there is a threat to their needs, interests or concerns. Although conflict is a normal part of organization life, providing numerous opportunities for growth through improved understanding and insight, there is a tendency to view conflict as a negative experience caused by abnormally difficult circumstances. Disputants tend to perceive limited options and finite resources available in seeking solutions, rather than multiple possibilities that may exist 'outside the box' in which we are problem-solving.

A few points are worth reiterating before proceeding:

* A conflict is more than a mere disagreement - it is a situation in which people perceive a threat (physical, emotional, power, status, etc.) to their well-being. As such, it is a meaningful experience in people's lives, not to be shrugged off by a mere, "it will pass…"
* Participants in conflicts tend to respond on the basis of their perceptions of the situation, rather than an objective review of it. As such, people filter their perceptions (and reactions) through their values, culture, beliefs, information, experience, gender, and other variables. Conflict responses are both filled with ideas and feelings that can be very strong and powerful guides to our sense of possible solutions.
* As in any problem, conflicts contain substantive, procedural, and psychological dimensions to be negotiated. In order to best understand the threat perceived by those engaged in a conflict, we need to consider all of these dimensions.
* Conflicts are normal experiences within the work environment. They are also, to a large degree, predictable and expectable situations that naturally arise as we go about managing complex and stressful projects in which we are significantly invested. As such, if we develop procedures for identifying conflicts likely to arise, as well as systems through which we can constructively manage conflicts, we may be able to discover new opportunities to transform conflict into a productive learning experience.
* Creative problem-solving strategies are essential to positive approaches to conflict management. We need to transform the situation from one in which it is 'my way or the highway' into one in which we entertain new possibilities that have been otherwise elusive.

Source: Harry Webne-Behrman
Photo: www.sxc.hu/photo/479608

Why do we tend to avoid dealing with conflict?

Dates: March 5-6, 2009
Where: Val-David, Quebec
Module 3 of the Genuine Contact Program

Additional Information: info@mbureau.com
Registration Form: http://www.integralvisions.com/sessions.htm


Engaging in dialogue and negotiation around conflict is something we tend to approach with fear and hesitation, afraid that the conversation will go worse than the conflict has gone thus far. All too often, we talk ourselves out of potential dialogue:

"Why should I talk to her? She'll bite my head off and not listen to anything I have to say!"

OR

"I should talk to him about this problem, but maybe it will go away on its own. There's no sense stirring up something that makes us both uncomfortable."

OR

"If I go to him, I'm making myself vulnerable. No, that's his responsibility - he should come to me and ask me to talk!"

Our responses, as noted earlier, tend to include behaviors, feelings, thoughts and physical responses. If any of these responses indicates stress factors that make us reluctant to talk things out, we are more inclined to follow the pathway of avoidance. In addition, if we have history with the individuals involved in this conflict (i.e., we've tried to negotiate with them in the past, without success), it will "filter" our perceptions of this situation and make us reluctant to negotiate.

In addition, consider that our society tends to reward alternative responses to conflict, rather than negotiation: People who aggressively pursue their needs, competing rather than collaborating, are often satisfied by others who prefer to accommodate. Managers and leaders are often rewarded for their aggressive, controlling approaches to problems, rather than taking a more compassionate approach to issues that may seem less decisive to the public or their staffs. In other circumstances, those who raise issues and concerns, even respectfully, are quickly perceived to be "problem" clients or staff members… they tend to be avoided and minimized. In any of these approaches, negotiated solutions to conflicts are rarely modeled or held in high esteem.

Finally, we should keep in mind that negotiation requires profound courage on the part of all parties: It takes courage to honestly and clearly articulate your needs, and it takes courage to sit down and listen to your adversaries. It takes courage to look at your own role in the dispute, and it takes courage to approach others with a sense of empathy, openness and respect for their perspective. Collaborative approaches to conflict management require us to engage in the moment of dialogue in profound and meaningful ways, so it is understandable if we tend to avoid such situations until the balance of wisdom tips in favor of negotiation.

Source: Harry Webne-Behrman
Photo:www.sxc.hu/photo/1028813

Intention of Session Three of the Genuine Contact™ Program

Dates: March 5-6, 2009
Where: Val-David, Quebec
Module 3 of the Genuine Contact Program

Additional Information: info@mbureau.com
Registration Form: http://www.integralvisions.com/sessions.htm

Our learning intensive in Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution is the third in a series of the five learning intensives of our Genuine Contact™ program.

Session Three can be taken on its own to explore the facilitation of Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution. Or it can be taken as part of the series. We included this component to prepare facilitators for assisting persons who have identified that they wish to resolve their conflict but need assistance to do so. Often, existing conflict in an organization is brought forward during Open Space Technology and Whole Person Process Facilitated meetings. During these meetings, the people who are in conflict will often state that they no longer wish to be in the conflicted situation. An actionable outcome is often developed to work on resolving this conflict. However, following the meeting, the people involved may ask for assistance because they don’t know how to move beyond the conflict to a resolution.

This learning intensive was developed to assist facilitators to facilitate this resolution for people of all cultures and cross culturally.

People engaged in conflict are usually fixed in one perspective. They rarely ask each other genuine questions. They also tend to lose contact with their whole selves, rendering voiceless a part of themselves and are unable to participate fully and effectively in efforts to resolve the conflict. Our process works with enabling the person to look again, to make genuine contact again.

Our processes are universal, effective with all human beings.

Participants who go through Conflict Resolution work with our processes are shifted beyond going back to the re-enactment of their old fruitless conversations and their fixation on their previous perspective. This is a result even in situations where there is not resolution to the conflict. In other words, there is a shift using our processes from the old re-enactments, whether there is completion with resolution or not.

Practices of Conflict Resolution

Dates: March 5-6, 2009
Where: Val-David, Quebec
Module 3 of the Genuine Contact Program

At this two-day highly experiential workshop, “Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution”, you will learn a simple and highly effective method for working with people in conflict situations who wish to resolve their problem. The workshop focuses on the readiness of the facilitator to work with situations of conflict, providing skills and frameworks for conflict resolution in groups based on universal cross-cultural practices for conflict resolution.

Today, all organizations and the people within them are experiencing more rapid change than ever before. Hand in hand with change comes the certainty of conflict. Conflict can be source of creativity and innovation when individuals and groups embrace diverse viewpoints and can reconcile differences. However, unresolved conflict diverts individual and organizational energy away from constructive and productive work, which ultimately negatively impacts service and the bottom line. People engaged in conflict are usually fixed in one perspective. They rarely ask each other genuine questions. They may lose contact with their whole selves. Individual responses may make it difficult for them to participate fully and effectively in efforts to resolve the conflict, resulting in the need for third party intervention.

What will I Learn at this Workshop?

You will leave the workshop equipped with practical and holistic process and frameworks that will enable you to:
· Make genuine contact with your understanding of conflict and conflict resolution;
· Prepare yourself to successfully facilitate conflict resolution;
· Determine if conflict resolution is appropriate or if other means need to be employed
· Work with individuals to prepare them for conflict resolution;
· Apply practices for conflict resolution with individuals and groups
The workshop is based on best practices of the Genuine Contact™ program and approach.

Each workshop includes a workbook and video and audio CD package to support ongoing learning. All participants have access to support and mentorship following the training through an international network of Genuine Contact™ professionals.

Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution is Session 3 of the Genuine Contact™ Program.

Our New Workshop Location

Nestled in the Laurentian Mountains 80 km north of Montreal is the beautiful town of Val David and Prema Shanti, a tranquil inn on the shores of Lac Doré. Prema Shanti is home to our workshops and provides an ideal retreat setting for a complete residential learning experience.

The inn offers beautifully appointed rooms, fine dining, and easy access to hiking trails, swimming and canoeing. Meals and accommodations are included in tuition and include accommodations for the nights of March 4 and 5, meals from breakfast on March 5 through lunch on March 6, non-alcoholic beverages and use of the facilities.

Additional Information and / or Registration Form
info@mbureau.com

In-House Workshops

Contact us to arrange a private workshop for your organization or association to learn about the importance of Organizational Health and Balance or any of the other Genuine Contact™ Program Workshops.