Leading Through Conflict

As our world grows smaller, opportunities for conflict multiply. Ethnic, religious, political, and personal differences drive people apart—with potentially disastrous consequences—and it's the task of perceptive leaders to bring them together again World-renowned mediation expert Mark Gerzon argues that leaders have failed to rise to this challenge. Our organisations, schools, and governments remain filled with divisive dictators and everyday managers, instead of what he calls mediators—leaders who transform conflict so that everyone can move forward together. Through absorbing examples drawn from decades of work with organisational, political, and global conflicts of all kinds, Leading Through Conflict provides a powerful new framework for the leader as mediator, and outlines eight specific tools these leaders use to transform seemingly intractable differences into progress on deep-seated problems. Both practical and passionate, this book makes the tools of cross-border leaders accessible to anyone who wants to help create healthier companies, communities, and countries.

Unfortunately, far too many people don’t like where they work. Some organizations are unhealthy and full of disrespectful behavior. Other workplaces are simply uninspiring. For various reasons, countless people feel trapped, indifferent, or bored at work. The authors of this book believe that people should be able to like where they work. When employees like the places they work, it’s not only good for their mental health and well-being, it’s also good for their organizations – both financially and otherwise. When a workplace culture is purposely created to be respectful and inspiring, employees are happier, more productive, and more engaged. By exploring six key elements that make up a healthy workplace culture, The Culture Question answers two fundamental questions: “How does your organization’s culture impact how much people like where they work?” and “What can you do to make it better?” Discover how to create a workplace where people like to work by focusing on these six elements of healthy workplace culture: Communicating Your Purpose and Values. Employees are inspired when they work in organizations whose purpose and values resonate with them. Providing Meaningful Work. Most employees want to work on projects that inspire them, align with what they are good at, and allow them to grow. Focusing Your Leadership Team on People. How leaders relate to their employees plays a major role in how everyone feels about their workplace. Building Meaningful Relationships. When employees like the people they work with and for, they are more satisfied and more engaged in their work. Creating Peak Performing Teams. People are energized when they work together effectively because teams achieve things that no one person could do on their own. Practicing Constructive Conflict Management. When leaders don’t handle conflict promptly and well, it quickly sours the workplace. This book includes survey feedback from over 2,400 leaders and employees and resources for putting these ideas into action.

Effective leadership requires many skills, but foremost among them is the capacity to successfully deal with conflict. Any disruption that creates a lack of alignment can trigger the conflict cycle, such as differences of opinion, competition for scarce resources and interpersonal enmity. Leading through Conflict brings together recent theory and research on interpersonal conflict and its resolution by examining the causes and consequence of conflict in groups, organizations and communities, and identifying ways that conflict can be managed and resolved. It analyzes conflict in a multi-disciplinary way, from clashes within communities to interpersonal and professional encounters. Written in an accessible way by top scholars in the field, Leading through Conflict is a must-read for academics, graduate students, undergraduates and MBA students across leadership, organizational behavior, psychology and sociology.

There are two types of conflict in congregations: conflict that kills and conflict that cultivates growth. So argues David E. Woolverton in Mission Rift: Leading through Church Conflict. Conflict that kills--that damages or destroys teams, ministries, missions, vibrancy--occurs when we as the people of God forget who we are, why we're here, and where we're going in carrying out the divine mission. Conflict that cultivates growth often begins with the same scenarios, but leaders see conflict as a context for learning how to live together as a people called to transform their neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. In Mission Rift, Woolverton reorients our view of congregational conflict. In part 1, he examines conflict from a theological and ecclesiological framework, exploring why it is essential to discipleship and mission. In part 2, he presents six principles of missional leadership, challenging pastors and other leaders to define themselves within the frameworks of spiritual formation and family systems, and then to create environments that facilitate growth in faith communities. Rather than resolve conflict too quickly, Woolverton explains, lest we inadvertently sabotage the potential it has to draw a congregation toward spiritual growth, wise leaders recognize that a lack of conflict may be a symptom of missional decline, rather than congregational unity. When the church pursues its divine mission first, conflict may become essential for defining its mission priorities. Successfully leading through conflict toward a transformative end will empower a congregation's witness within its community and beyond.

Unresolved conflict is workplace kryptonite. Learn how to develop the mindset and skills to defuse disagreements, overcome division, and turn conflict into an opportunity for growth. Unresolved workplace conflict wastes time, increases stress, and negatively affects business outcomes. But conflict isn't the problem, mismanagement is. Leaders unintentionally mismanage conflict when they fall into patterns of what Marlene Chism calls “the Three As:” aggression, avoidance, and appeasing. “These coping mechanisms are ways human beings avoid the emotions that come with conflict, but in the end it's all avoidance,” says Chism. In this book she shows how to fearlessly deal with conflict head-on by expanding your conflict capacity. Conflict capacity is a combination of three elements. The foundation is the Inner Game—the leader's self-awareness, values, discernment, and emotional integrity. The Outer Game is the skills, tools, and communication techniques built on that foundation. Finally, there's Culture—the visible and invisible structures around you that can encourage or discourage conflict. Chism offers exercises, examples, and expert guidance on developing all three elements. Leaders will discover techniques to increase leadership clarity, identify obstacles, and reduce resistance. They'll develop powerful skills for dealing with high-conflict people and for initiating, engaging in, and staying with difficult conversations. Readers will learn that when they see conflict as a teacher, courageously face it, and continually work on transforming themselves, they can get the resolution they are seeking. They can change minds.

It's more than fair to say that everyone is going through a time of unprecedented obstacles and uncertain outcomes.Higher education is certainly of no exception.Now, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and related challenges to educating students on campus, the need for leadership, crisis response, and change management from academic leadership, in this currently volatile landscape, is increasingly urgent.Compiled from Academic Leader articles, Leading through Crisis, Conflict, and Change in Higher Education brings you direct advice, from qualified subject matter experts from a variety of campuses, on wide-ranging nuanced aspects of managing difficult issues and topics.Leading through Crisis, Conflict, and Change in Higher Education emphasizes three key areas of higher education leadership and provides in-depth and extensive insights into each topic: Leading through Crisis Leading through Conflict Leading through Change Begin with valuable strategies and relevant guidance on navigating crucial topics, such as COVID-19, the #MeToo movement, and social injustice, among others, while steadily supporting your faculty, staff, and students.Next, receive a wealth of knowledge about managing conflicts on your campus. From the positive effects of conflict, to creating emotionally intelligent conversations, to managing intradepartmental conflict, to dealing with toxic leadership, and just understanding how to deal with those who just won't work cohesively with others, leading educators and leaders nationwide share how they directly deal with these issues and more.Finally, you'll discover numerous approaches about how to continuously improve and keep up with the constant changes of higher education, including innovation and technology, online education, inclusion and accessibility, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Open Educational Resources, and more.Leading through Crisis, Conflict, and Change in Higher Education is your compilation of strong and compelling guidance from leaders and educators who have gone through and are currently going through the same difficult moments you are. Make this your tool for discovering the multiple facets of crisis communication, conflict management, and change leadership in higher education.Get your thorough guide to the foremost facets of leading through unprecedented times.

This first volume in the Library of Leadership Development helps pastors and lay leaders understand, prevent, and redeem conflicts. Its authors tell their stories and explain the principles that help them lead through the storms of congregational life.

Make workplace conflict resolution a game that EVERYBODY wins! Recent studies show that typical managers devote more than a quarter of their time to resolving coworker disputes. The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games offers a wealth of activities and exercises for groups of any size that let you manage your business (instead of managing personalities). Part of the acclaimed, bestselling Big Books series, this guide offers step-by-step directions and customizable tools that empower you to heal rifts arising from ineffective communication, cultural/personality clashes, and other specific problem areas—before they affect your organization's bottom line. Let The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games help you to: Build trust Foster morale Improve processes Overcome diversity issues And more Dozens of physical and verbal activities help create a safe environment for teams to explore several common forms of conflict—and their resolution. Inexpensive, easy-to-implement, and proved effective at Fortune 500 corporations and mom-and-pop businesses alike, the exercises in The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games delivers everything you need to make your workplace more efficient, effective, and engaged.