Robyn McMaster of Brain Based Biz has posted a good resource article on workplace bullying. In Stop Abuse: Bullying in the Workplace, Robyn’s compiled the thinking of a number of professionals who’ve written on the topic, and if you’re a manager or in HR, the article is well worth your read.

I want to add a note of caution about the article’s list of behaviors that bullies may employ: [Read more...]

Sitting in a faculty meeting last week, I realized I’d just been transported unwittingly to Abilene.

Abilene, Texas, that is.

Abilene in and of itself may be a fine place to visit (I’ve never been). But this particular type of trip to Abilene is one worth avoiding. It’s a form of groupthink known as the Abilene Paradox, made famous in The Abilene Paradox and Other Mediations on Management, a wonderful little late 1980s book by management professor Jerry Harvey. The gist of the story is this, as re-told in Wikipedia: [Read more...]

One of my recent conflict resolution workshop participants raised his hand. “How do you know when it’s worth raising an issue and when it would be better to let it go?”

Well that’s sure the $64,000 question! (I’m probably dating myself with that one, eh?)

In the workshop, I showed folks how to figure it out for themselves, each time that good question comes up in a conflict situation or other problem. Since I don’t have all of you in a workshop, here are some guiding questions I offer my conflict coaching clients and training participants: [Read more...]

The Conflict Resolution Articles Vault is a monthly feature that dips into the archives and shares still-relevant articles from one year ago:

Channeling Elaine: How Seinfeld Helped Me Apologize: Who knew that an episode of Seinfeld would come to my rescue?

5 Simple Ways to Keep Your Cool in Conflict: A few simple, do-able ways to help you manage your frustration during conflict.

Arguments, Conflict and Negotiations: Picking Your Battles: How a pair of red Converse All-Stars almost broke my heart but instead [Read more...]

Copyright © 2007 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.

A reader has asked me what makes dialogue “genuine,” a question prompted by my tagline, “Jump-start genuine dialogue.”

When I’m coaching a workplace team or a couple in the creation of genuine dialogue around change, conflict or key decisions to be made, I use these criteria for assessing the quality of dialogue: [Read more...]

“Is it true that if a student’s roommate dies, the surviving roommate gets automatic A’s for the semester?” When I was a college dean, a fall term rarely passed without a first-year student asking me that question.

Persistent rumors, urban legends and myths find lives of their own in the workplace, too. The conventional response? Counter the incorrect, bad or troubling information with accurate, good or upbeat information.

Unfortunately, research suggests that denials, clarifications and counter-information may have paradoxical consequences: greater resiliency of the myth. [Read more...]

My monthly roundups are links to ideas and articles that help make relationships stronger, workplaces more dynamic, conversations more collaborative, and conflict more constructive:

Do you have a “diamond in the rough” in your organization, someone whose potential is there even though they make some blunders? For some ideas about helping unleash employee potential, check out When Leading Change, Don’t Manage Time: Invest it in People.

For a great tip on organizational communication, [Read more...]