Focus on what you can do. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. You don’t have to get personal when you have an opinionated discussion. That is to a great degree what our culture is, working together and getting along, even if there are situations where you disagree. You can disagree, but don’t let it get to the point where the interaction becomes adversarial. You do it with respect, and if respect isn’t occurring, maybe you need to ask people to leave, because if people start getting personal, that can be very disruptive in a business.
Stick to the facts of what you are talking about. Stick to what is happening and how you can help the situation. We give people chances to correct themselves, talk it out, give them action plans for correction. From there, a lot of people decide if that is what they want. People do sometimes leave on that basis, but at least they know why they’re leaving. You have your rules to enforce.
You have to know what the issue is. Really, it’s Problem Solving 101. Here is the problem. Let’s understand it first, then make the solution to it. A lot of people will jump from the problem to what their personal solution is. But if you don’t understand the whole thing, that is a very one-sided approach. What we say is that everybody has their opportunity to discuss either the good or bad in a situation as it is occurring. Once it is evaluated, only then do we go toward making a solution. Hopefully that solution will benefit both parties.
Practice problem solving. People understand 95 to 98 percent of the concepts, rules and culture of the company. You don’t have to have a whole lot of people in the room when you’re discussing problem solving, but we’ve discovered that when there is a conflict between two employees, be it high or low on the ladder, you need to have a third party talk to them, and ultimately, you have to get everybody into a room. It doesn’t have to involve a ton of people, but ultimately, you need to have the involvement of a third party that is willing to sit and listen. Then you have to have someone who has the ability to make the decision of what is right and wrong, so that if people can’t comply or won’t comply, you can take corrective action to make sure people on both sides understand that this conflict can’t and won’t continue.
Sometimes, both people in the conflict decide to leave the organization. But at least you know they had a chance to talk about things.
Take early steps. Another thing is you try to recognize problems that could lead to conflict early on. We do a lot of counseling and helping people get stuff done as they might be working through stuff in their personal lives. That is just doing the right thing. Fortunately, we haven’t had a whole bunch of those issues. We don’t have a ton of instances where people are leaving or being asked to leave. So a lot of it gets resolved way before it gets to the level of a serious problem, which is key.
How to reach: EHOB Inc., (317) 972-4600 or www.ehob.com