“What we need around here is more disagreement!” – Conflict for transformation

Details: September 28, 2023, 08:30 AM - 09:45:00 PM ET

Workshop Track: Human Resources

Primary Audience: Senior leaders, HR professionals, and all other caretakers of organizational culture

“It is possible to conceive of conflict as not necessarily a wasteful outbreak of incompatibilities, but a normal process by which socially valuable differences register themselves for the enrichment of all concerned.”

So said Mary Parker Follett (a sadly underappreciated genius known by savvy Organizational Development experts as the “Mother of Modern Management") almost a century ago (1924). Look carefully at the phrase “for the enrichment of all concerned” … can conflict REALLY make our organizations richer? The answer is a resounding "Yes!," and the right kind of conflict is ESPECIALLY important for proclaiming -- and most important, demonstrating -- the Gospel in times of rapid social transformation.

In this session we’ll identify the costs of conflict incompetence and explore the specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes that support a culture of value-adding, Christ-honoring constructive conflict. Training implications will be discussed, with learning activities demonstrated as time and group size permit.