Disputes are conflicts, our differences, brought to light. In 14 years of mediating business and community disputes, I’ve observed that a dispute is also, as often as not, a proxy for a hitherto unexpressed conflict, be it a gap in communication, a feeling that somethings not quite right, here, a hot button pushed… the list […]
Shalom: Dispute and conflict and educational moments in a nonprofit board
It’s the leaders’ responsibility to confront sexual harassment in their workplace
Culture starts at the top of the organization. The bottom line is that its the organization’s leaders who must take responsibility, lead the charge, for making the workplace safe, free of unwanted sexual harassment. Sexual harassment in the workplace is pervasive The American Heritage Dictionary gives the sexual harassment definition as: The making of unwanted […]
How conflict grows from “something’s not right, here” to “see you in court”
It’s crazy how something that’s a minor annoyance to us can mushroom into a full-blown dispute. Apart from my own mushrooms, I see this all the time, as a mediator. One party has a gut feeling that somethings not quite right. Before the dust has settled on that feeling, its magnified into something bigger. They […]
Manage your Workplace Conflict Fires as if you were a Forest Fire Control Expert
A good part of my home province, British Columbia, is on fire. I’m grateful, in more ways than one, to those who are fighting those fires. Due to the hot and dry conditions, there are hundreds of forest fires currently active, many of them out-of-control, across British Columbia. 14,000 people have, so far, been forced to […]
The CEO, The Profits, and The Conflict
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) has been around almost as long as the nation state of Canada. The CPR was incorporated in 1881. The last few years have been good ones, for CPR shareholders. Yet, that “success” may have come at a price, workplace culture, as last weekend’s Globe and Mail feature on the CPR […]