The Better Life Success Enrichment Seminar 7

The point of resolving a conflict isn’t to figure out who was right, but to figure out how to solve the problem in light of the situation. The problem is not that we disagree, but that our disagreement prevents us from doing something together.

Here’s an conflict in black and white:

The owner of the company decides that we need a general manager. He hires one and makes him the boss, my boss. He seems all right. Everything goes along pretty much as before. Then he starts messing with my job. Some things that I supervise, he starts supervising. Some things that I supervise, he gives to other people to supervise. Slowly but surely, he dismantles my job. He is my enemy. He is evil. I fight him to the death. We suffer, everybody around us suffers, until I quit because I know they will fire me if I don’t.

What if it had gone this way:

The owner of the company decides that we need a general manager. After a while, he starts changing my job. I pay attention to what he is doing. I consider that it might be a good thing, better for the company. We discuss it. He tells me the reason he is making the changes is that there are too many levels of management around here. That’s his decision to make. We find something else for me to do or he gives me some severance pay, writes me a wonderful recommendation, and helps me find another job.