What we've learned about implementing change and handling conflict
Implementing Change and Dealing with Conflict is as common in teams and organizations as paperclips and email. These things can be planned, or spontaneous. They can be held with great care, or thrown about and discarded like outdated sales reports.
Change and conflict can be messy, ugly, hurtful and the cause of great frustration and anxiety.
But if you’ve worked in at least a somewhat healthy environment, you know that these two things, when handled with intentionality and grace, can be the catalyst for significant personal and business growth.
But handling them with intentionally and grace, well, that’s not always so easy.
Hello everyone, my name is Nathan Freeburg and you are listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast where we share our expertise in the discovery practice, and implementation of a Strengths-Based approach to people, teams, and culture.
Today on the podcast, Sara Schlipp-Reidel and I reflect on the topics of implementing change and handling conflict, through the lens of a recent team engagement we led. About a week ago, we worked with a client in the bay area who we’ve had the privilege to get to know for the past year. We lead them through these topics, which, as it turns out, was extremely timely for where this team was at.
On this episode, Sara and I will briefly share the Leadership Vision approach to change and conflict, then reflect on just a couple of the things we learned from working with this particular team.
We’ll share some new insights about the topics on change and conflict, as well as the process of facilitating them in the midst of a team in the thick of it. We’ll also offer a few suggestions that we think may help you navigate these two important and inevitable aspects of life on any sort of team. So keep listening.
Now normally when recording one of these reflection episodes, Sara and I would have chatted on the way to the airport, or at the airport. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out this time, but we did connect via Skype shortly after the job. Sound quality aside, there are a couple of internet hiccups that I couldn’t edit out, this may have been a little better since it gave both of us the opportunity to reflect a bit and allow our lessons learned to marinate into what you’re about to hear.
I also wanted to tell you just a tiny bit about this team. I can’t share exactly who the company is, but what’s relevant to this conversation is that this particular team is part of a very large organization who has been around since the last 80’s. They have offices all over the world, and at least two team members work and lead their own teams several time zones away. The larger organization also has some pretty solid business and cultural practices in place. They have all sorts of great vision and mission and values stuff flowing through the organization. The actual team we were working with was small, just six people, but the influence they wield in that organization is significant.
I share that because I think it’s important to note that even if a team or organization has been around for a while, they can still struggle when it comes to implementing change or dealing with conflict. This team is by no means dysfunctional, but sometimes having an outside voice can help clear the path for greater innovation, team functioning, and ultimately, an all-around better work environment. All of that, of course, leads to greater success by everyone.
So here’s this conversation between Sara Schlipp-Ridel and I as we talk about navigating a team through Change and Conflict.
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