How much is conflict costing your company right now?
Conflict is a hidden, but high, cost. Its cost is hidden in your salary budget in the form of wasted time. It is hidden in your recruiting budget in the form of unnecessary turnover. It is hidden in the consequences of poor decisions that result from a decision-making process contaminated by power contests. It is hidden in six additional factors that can be measured.
We'll show you how to find out. Estimate the dollar-cost of a specific conflict in your organization with the Dana Measure of Financial Cost of Conflict, a free on-line calculator in the Conflict Management Toolbox.
Use this formula to estimate your financial return-on-investment in conflict management training and other optional components of the MTI Training System.
What is your company's strategy for managing conflict?
Every organization has a conflict management strategy, but few know what it is. It is imbedded in the organization's structure and culture, and the competencies of employees to resolve and prevent workplace conflicts.
We'll show you how to find out. Analyze the conflict management strategy that is currently imbedded in your organization's culture with the Dana Survey of Conflict Management Strategies, a free on-line instrument in the Conflict Management Toolbox.
Conflict management is a key strategic function of every organization, so it should be an intentional, conscious one — not left to chance. The unnecessary costs and increased risks are too great to ignore any longer.
The MTI Training SystemTM is a comprehensive, flexible approach to cutting the hidden costs and business risks of preventable conflict. It is a "cafeteria plan" of optional components that allows organizations to receive exactly what they need . . . and nothing more.
Step 1: Benchmark — Assess current conflict, its forms, and its costs
Establish baseline measures of conflict in your organization with the Dana Survey of Conflict Management Strategies and the Dana Measure of Financial Cost of Conflict. Both instruments may be completed on-line. Comparison studies may be designed to assess different parts of your organization.
Step 2: Train — Establish the core competencies for managing workplace conflict
Managers' Course: The Manager-as-Mediator Seminar: How to mediate conflict between employees
Employees' Course: The Self-as-Mediator Seminar: How to resolve conflict with others
For best results, managers should also complete the employees' course. These intensive one-day programs are taught on-site by Certified Trainers of Managing Workplace Conflict, located worldwide.
Training options:
- Send one or more internal HRD staff to an open-enrollment Certification Conference in Managing Workplace Conflict in a city near you — select the Train-the-Trainer registration option. Send key managers to assess the program — select the Train-the-Manager registration option.
- Hold a two-day in-house train-the-trainer program to prepare your training consultants to conduct courses for other employees.
- Use computer-based training with web-based testing and reporting to establish skills in the most cost-effective and time-efficient way. Consider your HRD options.
Step 3: Coach — Support the learning
Each learner receives three outcome-targeted, 30-minute, telephonic coaching sessions following training. Training plus coaching increases performance 88% 1.
Step 4: Enable — Remove the obstacles
Identify the blockages imbedded in your organization's structure and culture that prevent effective application of the core competencies gained through training. Create and implement an action plan to remove those obstacles, enabling learners to fully apply their conflict resolution competencies, and allowing the organization to realize full value from its investment in training.
Step 5: Expertize — Train an in-house panel of expert mediators
Host a customized in-house 40-hour (five days) Mediator Certification Course to create a panel of expert mediators. Thereafter, your in-house experts will be capable of mediating the most challenging and complex disputes.
Step 6: Systematize — Establish a comprehensive dispute resolution system
Design, establish, and fully document an interest-based conflict management system containing procedures for handling disputes of all kinds, including employee grievances, EEOC complaints, wrongful termination challenges, vendor disputes, and other conflicts that may otherwise unnecessarily escalate to litigation.
Step 7: Reassess — Compare to benchmarks
Re-administer the benchmarking instruments. Measure the progress toward becoming a "Mediating Organization" by comparing aggregate costs of conflicts and index scores of conflict management strategies. Examine results for indication of appropriate next steps, if any.
1 An article in Public Personnel Management (Winter 97, Vol. 26 Issue 4, p. 461, International Personnel Management Association) reported a study comparing training alone to coaching combined with training. Training alone increased productivity by 22.4% while training plus coaching increased productivity by 88%.
For more information, or to schedule an Executive Workshop for your company, call (913) 432-2888 or toll-free at (888) 222-3271, or email info@mediationworks.com
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