Conflict is a normal and natural part of any workplace. When it occurs, there is a tendency for morale to be lowered, an increase in absenteeism and decreased productivity. It has been estimated that managers spend at least 25 percent of their time resolving workplace conflicts – causing lowered office performance.
Dr. Smithmyer of Brāv’s book on facilitation:
Every day, individuals face situations where we are required to take decisions- big or small. Some of these decisions are categorised as important and urgent while others might be regular in nature. Regardless, we are needed to make the decisions and come to a conclusion. However, even if the said decision comes under the regular category is almost insignificant to us in our daily lives, a large group of us lack the ability to take the right choices or decisions, thus putting their professional life, family and relationships at stake.
Therefore, it is imperative for every one of us to be aware of the impact of all our decisions, even the smallest ones and seek help to improvise on it, if we know that we aren’t good at it or get a second opinion to just be sure. Few steps to improve your decision making are:
Step 1: Don’t Delay
Dedicate a sincere amount of time each day to work through your decision and take the same stand without getting manipulated.
Step 2: Shelve Ego & Emotion
Instead of searching for flaws and deficiencies in your own self, focus on the facts already available and work on them.
Step 3: Ask an Expert
A neutral third – party would help you to make decisions without any bias and will keep your objective as the primary thought.
Step 4: Question your Data
Seek trustworthy data without any deceit and keep questioning until you’re satisfied to skyrocket decision-making ability.
Step 5: Plan for Doomsday
The final step is to understand the underlying risks of the decisions you make. It is very critical to always be prepared for the worst case there could be.
A right decision at right time goes a long way in anyone’s life. We regret for not taking right decision when it was needed and when time lapses no remedial measure is available. Reach out to friends, family, experts because it is only you who can do things right for you. No one else can.
What is an Anchor?
In normal usage, an anchor can be the stable rock supporting an effort or keeping an object in one place. Good or bad? When used to keep a boat or ship in place during normal use, it means you can always find what is anchored. During a bad storm, it can mean finding it at the bottom of the ocean, with the anchor doing more harm than good, unless the anchor line has enough flexibility to reduce risk at the same time.
In human terms, an anchor should have the action potential to be both the foundation and the best person to plan around when seeking a change. The flexibility to be both the voice of reason and the spirit of motivation. Always strive to be an effective anchor while being flexible enough to meet all needs. Be the anchor!
Brāv Online Conflict Management fully endorses BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s urge to push companies to include a social mission.
In the grand scheme of things, how society treats the least of its members defines that society. When the affluent hold contempt or disdain for the socioeconomically challenged, social conflict is surely on the horizon.
What you do does not define you, how what you do changes you will.
A passage from the Bible very apropos in the contemporary environment, “To one who has been given much, much is demanded, and to one who has been entrusted with even more, greater than this is expected.” This does not mean to share your wealth; it means to be charitable through external action and internal compassion.
Mercy is always a positive social action, while grace is a gift from God. One must share God’s grace to “live the gift,” and pray for mercy.
Work hard to improve your image, be someone’s “miracle,” and good things will happen.
Deeper satisfaction always follows a decisive action, so don’t just think it or say it, get off your ass and do something about it. You will be amazed how you will feel afterward.
Have a blessed day, and let’s all pray to our God (in whatever way you may define your deity) for the strength to make 2018 a better year!
Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more parties, with the intent of coming to a mutually agreed solution, because each party has something the other wants.
Successful negotiation is an art form that comes naturally to some, but must be learned by most.
Currently!
Brāv Annual Membership
Benefits:
• Mediation trainings and webinars
• Publishing opportunities and mentions in major publications
• Use of platform to kick start your career as mediator and practice mediation
• Access to exclusive resources for members
• Regular discussions on ADR trending topics
• Early access to Global Brāv’s Event – including Brāv’s Annual Event, study tours and cruises
• Become part of fastest growing global network of Neutrals
• Provide support to set up a Mediation Clinic in schools, colleges and communities
• Regular skill upgrading sessions
• Membership discounts
And many more resourceful perks
Brāv Membership Fees
____ Professional ($200 USD): https://www.paypal.me/brav1/230
____ Student ($55 USD) – Discount $20 = $35 : https://www.paypal.me/brav1/36
____ Organizational ($1,690 USD): https://www.paypal.me/brav1/1720
(Total = Membership fee + Processing fees as applicable)
Last date to avail discounted membership for students is January 31, 2018.
As a Brāv member, you’re invited to be part of the development of the global profession by joining Brāv Partners, the worldwide association of professional conflict managers associations.
#choosetobebrāv (www.brav.org).
Life in the twenty-first century is, for most of us living in the Western World, pretty amazing. Unlike our predecessors we have a plethora of technology at our disposal with modern day wonders such as mobile phones and the internet have major impacts on our daily lives. Science fiction made science fact one might say, and this is all fantastic. Except, of course, when they go wrong. Then we realise just how dependant we are on complicated boxes of electronica and can flounder without them. The stress this caused can be immense, as most of us can appreciate.
I recently had the unfortunate displeasure of losing my home internet access just before the so-called ‘festive season’. Although I had officially finished work, as in I did not need to have a presence in the office or on the shop floor. I do not have the sort of work that finishes at 5 pm, and invariably always have to do some work at home. I accept this as being the way it is, although sometimes would love to have more free time. Sigh.
But I digress. So, I come home after work and find, that the internet was no more, it had ceased to be, it had departed this mortal coil, in other words it stopped working. Being a resourceful type, I know what to do: buttons were pressed, boxes were unplugged, turned off and on again, left to cool down, warm up and much more but all to no avail. Eventually I rang the so-called helpline, the computerised voice asked various questions and did its thing and assured me that all would be up and running within two days.
All as expected. Well, perhaps unsurprisingly I can assure the reader that things were most definitely not up and running after two days. Moreover, the promised text confirmation to my mobile phone did not materialise (thankfully this device was working ok and was my lifeline to the outside world). We were most definitely not amused, and so once more I contacted the helpline, a different one this time, that had a real human at the end, in some distant land. This charming person who at least initially mostly read in a monotone from a script (until I spoke to him in his language – the benefits of an eclectic education!), offered bland admonishments and a “most sincere apology” and promised to look into this personally. Sure enough, the next day someone appeared at my front door (at the time quoted – very impressive) and some time later (two hours) order was restored to chaos, entropy was averted and my network was re-born.
During this slightly fraught time it was most heartening that lovely colleagues, friends and partners (well, only one of the latter) offered help and support, and at least I had several options to fall back on were network disruptions to continue. I can’t help but think that the Beatles got it right (and not for the first time) when one of them, the one whose name begins with the letter ‘R’ sang. “I get by with a little help from my friends”.
This got me thinking about many things, good and bad and not necessarily about amazingly brilliant sixties popular beat combos. While technological marvels such as mobile phones and the internet are wonderful when they work, when they don’t problems arise of a nature and degree unimaginable in the good old days when such things were firmly in the realm of fantasy. I consider myself a groovy, chilled hip kind of guy, but I have to admit that even I was starting to get concerned as the mountain of stuff I needed the internet for (including writing blogs, funnily enough) was far from getting done and the clock was ticking. Obviously the world has to stop during the ‘festive season’ and my deadlines for various things were fixed in stone, immutable, unchangeable and if not done before the world stopped for a certain special day then the fate of the Western World would be sealed. I exaggerate, obviously, but I did have lots of things to do, and not being able to do them while I had a modicum of that most precious resource of free time, was rather frustrating.
I rather suspect that when things go wrong, as they often do in life, we often react without thinking, and may say and do things we regret. This leads to stress, more problems and often unwanted consequences, and invariably it is better to wait, think, reflect and cogitate before saying or doing something we regret. For once said and done it cannot be retracted and sorting out a bigger mess is far harder than dealing with a smaller, solvable one. I know that in my clinical work, as a doctor, my role was often more that of a diplomat than a doctor. Being called to resolve difficult situations necessitated using conflict resolution techniques early, applying reflective practice techniques (basically thinking carefully before reacting), keeping calm, and maintaining one’s cool so that things got sorted, peace could break out and life could go on. Conflicts of various sorts arise frequently in hospitals, and addressing these before they could fester and worsen was something I had to deal with a lot of the time, and certainly made the routine clinical work seem simple in comparison – well, almost.
Anyway, my own holiday saga was finally resolved without the need for violence or bloodshed, the relief of being able to get on with things and access emails and the internet was wonderful (really) and I even managed to get all my work done without too much angst – only one late night was needed and the festive season turned out to be just that. Oddly, the delay had no major consequences and frankly none were the wiser. So all was well that ended well. The moral of the story is that things can and will go wrong and when they do, try not to lose your head, and that all is not lost. – really. If you find that you somehow say or do the wrong thing and are facing seemingly insurmountable odds, there are ways of resolving such disputes. Either consult a doctor (err, perhaps not as your first option and please not this particular doctor) or better yet, a highly skilled mediator from #AlbertSquareMediation.
