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 […]

Use diverse strategies to create workplaces that better benefit women

Today is International Women’s Day. The UN adopted ‘women in the changing world of work’ as its’ theme for International Women’s Day 2017. On that front, UN Women has a few facts you should know, starting with the wage gap: From the Executive Director of UN Women: “Achieving equality in the workplace will involve governments’ targeted […]

Adopt a multi-dimensional approach to reduce workplace bullying and harassment

Today, February 22, 2017, is anti-bullying day, aka Pink Shirt Day, in Canada. While the focus of the day is bullying in schools, bullying behaviour has no boundaries. Schoolyard bullies, unanswered, take their act forward; to their families, communities, workplaces. Bullying behaviour in the workplace A respective workplace seeks to mitigate bullying and harassment behaviours. […]