|
Resiliency
as an Antidote to Conflict
By
Anita Ryan, Family Business Success, LLC
The
following article appeared in “The Manufacturers Alliance
Newsletter”. It addresses the importance of resiliency as a
means of thriving in what could otherwise be a stressful business
environment.
Each day in
family-owned businesses, there is increasing pressure to produce products
and services faster, better, cheaper--and then faster again. In this
environment, all employees, from the machine operator to the sales
manager, may feel as if they are running on a hamster wheel with no
control over the pace of their work lives. As external business stress
builds, internal reactions frequently surface in the form of
department-to-department and person-to-person conflicts.
Some leaders
in family businesses feel this scenario of pressure and conflict is
inevitable. They see it as the price to be paid for business success
and survival in a rapidly evolving, technological culture. Yet there
are individuals and companies thriving in this stressful environment
without continuous internal struggles or costly, debilitating conflict.
These organizations and individuals share a resiliency containing clues
for how to better operate within a chaotic and changing marketplace.
Among these
clues are three traits and behaviors pointing directly to successful
conflict avoidance or resolution:
- Maintain
internal calm regardless of one’s circumstances. This
capacity is related to a clear understanding on the part of
individuals or families that chaos, change and speed are circumstances
external to them. In maintaining separateness from the
surrounding action, they are better able to see solutions to problems,
prevent conflict and avoid being drawn into non-productive or harmful
actions. In addition, this understanding provides the evolutionary
space needed for new ideas. These ideas are the
mold-breaking insights that lie at the heart of any successful
business
- Detach
from one’s own thinking and ideas. Conflicts
arise when individuals, families or organizations become so attached
to their own thinking that they are unprepared to look at other ideas
that may conflict with their own. Resiliency requires the
ability to accept that our thoughts and opinions in any particular
moment are not the same as truth and reality.
- Develop
high impact listening behaviors. Persons
and organizations cultivating high impact listening, focus on hearing
the underlying message, without undue attention to the surface content
of a given communication. Understanding and respectfully
clarifying hidden agendas prevents highly destructive and costly
organizational conflicts.
All three of
these traits reflect a level of development and psychological growth not
often cultivated in business cultures. Creating environments that
nurture resiliency can be seen as too costly and time consuming for
corporate investment. Conducting a return-on-investment analysis,
however, may quickly prove the reverse. That is, replacing conflict
with resiliency saves time and money, producing a positive affect on the
bottom line.
How high a
price is your family business willing to pay for the illusion of success?
Every minute spent in conflict represents lost profitability and reduced
productivity. Do your own calculation. First, estimate the
time lost to conflict on a daily or weekly basis. Multiply these
hours by the dollars they represent in salary, wages and benefits over a
year’s time. Add to this the estimated additional costs of slowed
production, employee turnover, correcting mistakes, reputation-breaking
quality and lost business opportunities.
In addition
to examining the results of a return-on-investment calculation, consider
the impact of conflict on your family. The toll of continuing
conflict may lead to a host of problems ranging from creating distance
between family members to, over time, the debilitating erosion of trust.
Suddenly, the costs of not creating environments to purposefully
nurture resiliency traits are high both in dollars and in maintaining the
integrity of the family business.
There
doesn’t seem to be an end in sight to the ever quickening, demanding
pace of business. Now may be an opportune time for companies to
consider resiliency development as a success strategy for beating the high
costs of conflict. A corporate culture based on resiliency is good
for both business and the family.
|
