Conflict Zen

Team-building and workplace communications training is all the rage. Because part of my work is training, and I’m known for creating robust dialogue in workplace groups, it’s not unusual for me to receive such inquiries. And it turns out that sometimes, team-building is just a form of conflict avoidance.

My first question when I get these calls is, “Why do you want your workplace team to have communications training (or team-building)?” This question often meets with a little laugh, as though the answer should be obvious. [Read more...]

Delaney Kirk has tagged me in a book meme. The obvious choice was to share conflict resolution books. But I took a different path.

I decided to bring together two strands of my life: my love of literature (I was a lit major in college, with a specialty in the 20th century novel, and remain an avid fiction reader) and my interest in the human condition as it relates to conflict. Here’s my contribution to the meme: [Read more...]

Copyright © 2007 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.

Phil Gerbyshak extended me a kind and generous offer: To guest blog over at his place, Make It Great!

I invite you to check out my post Shift Your Thinking About Conflict. Here’s a taste: [Read more...]

Are you as turned off by whining as I am? Whining is very external locus of control and I’m an internal locus of control kind of gal.

If you whine to me, I cringe inwardly. If you share a complaint and ideas for improvement, I’m all ears.

Joseph Braun, Professor Emeritus at Illinois State University, apparently has some issues with whining, too. But he’s gone well beyond inward cringing and has elevated whining to an art form.

In his Scoring Guide for Whining, Braun proposes that whines can be scored on a 6-point scale, with consideration for purpose, audience, and quality. His scoring rubric includes such gems as: [Read more...]