It is estimated that employees spend 42% of their time engaging in or attempting to resolve conflict and 20% of Managers' time is consumed with conflict-related issues. Masters and Albright (2002), in The Complete Guide to Conflict Resolution in the Workplace, point out that people thrive on conflict in most areas of their lives–football games, political debates, legal disputes–yet … Continue reading What is Interest-Based Problem-Solving?
Exploitation and Subordination Reframed as Productivity and Utility
This article was first published on LinkedIn by Dr Kelvyn Youngman. It is re-published here with permission. Introduction Very few people understand subordination. No, it's true! In contrast, almost everyone understands exploitation. So, how can this be? Well, exploitation is instinctful and subordination is not. Subordination is thoughtful. We most easily understand exploitation, instinctfully, as a matter of … Continue reading Exploitation and Subordination Reframed as Productivity and Utility
‘Command and Control’ or ‘Facilitate and Release’
“We are in the middle of one of the most profound shifts in human history, where the primary work of mankind is moving from the Industrial Age of “control” to the Knowledge Worker Age of “release.”Stephen R Covey The quote above is from the foreword of "Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning … Continue reading ‘Command and Control’ or ‘Facilitate and Release’
The Group Styles Inventory (GSI)
The Group Styles Inventory (GSI) is the only research-based tool that provides a valid and reliable measure of how people in groups interact with each other and work as a team to solve problems. Extensively researched and internationally proven, this assessment provides group members with a ‘safe’ way to talk about their behaviour and how … Continue reading The Group Styles Inventory (GSI)
Unlock the secret of team synergy with one of the most widely used exercises for team building and group development in the world. Do your teams have what it takes to survive?
The Desert Situation "It is approximately 10 o'clock in the morning on a mid-August day and you have just crash-landed in the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern United States." Your task is to rank 15 items salvaged from the plane in the order of their importance to your team's survival. Set in an unfamiliar location, … Continue reading Unlock the secret of team synergy with one of the most widely used exercises for team building and group development in the world. Do your teams have what it takes to survive?
How to create an environment for breakthrough results in any team.
Team breakthroughs require a combination of skill and expertise, constructive interpersonal behaviour and rational thinking. The size of your breakthrough depends on the quality of the decision, multiplied by the degree to which the decision is accepted by those who must implement it. Quality and Acceptance are brought about through consensus decision-making. Skill and expertise … Continue reading How to create an environment for breakthrough results in any team.
Team Development – Using Simulations
Survival Simulation Series exercises require team members to work together effectively to deal with life-threatening situations. These simulations can be used as icebreakers, to establish Constructive norms within a new work group, or to introduce members to the value of synergy or to gauge their synergistic problem-solving skills. How Simulations work Synergy occurs when the interactive … Continue reading Team Development – Using Simulations
Collective problem solving – three tips to make it better.
For collective problem solving to be really effective there are three things to get right: 1. Get the right people in the room. It seems obvious but often goes unchecked. Do you have the subject matter expertise in the room or, at a minimum, do you have access to them? Are the decision makers present … Continue reading Collective problem solving – three tips to make it better.
Remove resistance or harness it?
There are fundamentally two approaches to dealing with resistance to change. First, we can see the power in it and utilise it in the same way as Dr. Kegan and Dr. Lahey suggest in my last post or, we can see it as harmful and try to eliminate it. In 2001 Prof. Victoria Mabin and … Continue reading Remove resistance or harness it?
Facilitating change – the real issues are …
"It's worth remembering that we lived in tribes for millennia, long before we learned how to speak. Emotional connection is our default. We only added words and symbolic logic much later. There are a few places where all that matters is the words. Where the force of logic is sufficient to change the moment. The rest … Continue reading Facilitating change – the real issues are …