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	<title>Paul David Olson &#187; solve office problems</title>
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	<description>Business, the Google, Sailing, Ad(s).</description>
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		<title>How To Diffuse Office Disagreements In 6 Easy Steps</title>
		<link>http://www.pauldavidolson.com/blog/2009/how-to-diffuse-office-disagreements-in-si-easy-steps/</link>
		<comments>http://www.pauldavidolson.com/blog/2009/how-to-diffuse-office-disagreements-in-si-easy-steps/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:33:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pdo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[solve office problems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[steps to solve office problems]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[In the age of email communication and overstretched resources, shit happens.  People gets offended, think their territory is getting invaded, think they&#8217;re not being trusted, think they&#8217;re being pushed aside.  Then they get frustrated.  They want to lash out.  They go to the boss.  Hopefully, they go to the boss.  What do you do?  It&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In the age of email communication and overstretched resources, shit happens.  People gets offended, think their territory is getting invaded, think they&#8217;re not being trusted, think they&#8217;re being pushed aside.  Then they get frustrated.  They want to lash out.  They go to the boss.  Hopefully, they go to the boss.  What do you do?  It&#8217;s your job to foster teamwork and unity.</p>
<ol>
<li>Diffuse.  Here&#8217;s what you say, &#8220;__, I really appreciated that you came to me first.  This has to be a misunderstanding.  I don&#8217;t think __ would ever intentionally do that.&#8221;</li>
<li>Buy some time.  Ask, &#8220;Has this been happening consistently?&#8221;  Probably not, but maybe.  Doesn&#8217;t really matter.  You&#8217;re buying time!</li>
<li>Think of a counter example.  If employee A thinks employee B isn&#8217;t pulling their weight; remind employee A of a time when B bailed them out.  This is where it will end 99% of the time.  Woops, misunderstanding &#8230; let&#8217;s move on.  Laugh, smile, and nudge employee A off the brink and pull them back into the team.  Unless &#8230;</li>
<li>Understand that there is truth in every complaint.  Evaluate the situation.  Is it serious?  Do you have a performance issue?  <a title="Can you tolerate average employees?" href="http://www.pauldavidolson.com/blog/2009/what-do-you-do-with-average-employees/" target="_blank">Can you tolerate mediocre employees</a>?  To be safe, document the issue with HR.  If it is serious &#8230;</li>
<li>Bring up the issue with the other employee &#8230; yourself.  It&#8217;s not the responsibility of the teammates to reconcile major issues, that&#8217;s your job.  The severity of the situation determines the severity of the meeting.  Stop by the other employee&#8217;s desk for minor issues.  Let them know the situation and your assessment of it so that they can share their side.  If it&#8217;s major, meet in your office or head out for coffee.  If there&#8217;s potential for yelling or cursing, it&#8217;s major.  Now you&#8217;ve got the entire story.</li>
<li>Act.  Let employee A know you&#8217;ve done your due diligence.  They will appreciated it because you&#8217;ve listened.  Share the course of action, but be vague &#8212; especially if you&#8217;re reprimanding the other employee.  If the conflict is very serious and you need to fire somebody, do so promptly.  An inability to act decisively undermines your effectiveness.</li>
</ol>
<p>Follow these six steps and you&#8217;ll avoid the territorial office chest-thumping that brings productivity to a stand-still.  Conflict happens, but it&#8217;s your job to keep it from impacting the business.</p>
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