Change exists only through conflict

I recall the first time I suspended an employee. A hand written letter, which I provided to the employee, was thrown back in my face. At that moment emotions were high, but once the employee returned to work following their suspension, their behavior (and our relationship) changed for the better. We had to work through emotion and conflict in order to move the employees attitude and performance to a new level.

Today I spend most of my time managing amidst conflict, emotion, and discomfort. Not a comfortable place for most, but a highly valuable place if you want to instantiate significant and meaningful change. These emotions naturally occur during many of the group sessions that I facilitate, and when they don’t exist, I know that something is wrong.

Passion, anger, and frustration first present themselves when individual beliefs, ideas or “sacred cow’s” are challenged. Invariably however, the existence of conflict and emotion serve as a tipping point, without which substantiated change cannot (and will not) exist.

When trying to initiate and sustain changes with your company or team, consider that emotion is actually a sign of passion; of desire; of devotion and as such must be dealt with directly. Attempting to avoid or ignore these emotions will only serve to delay or derail your intent and diminish the value of your change.

Consider some of the significant changes that you want to introduce which will require acceptance and adoption by your employees.

© Shawn Casemore 2014. All rights reserved.