Stop Trying to Resolve Your Way Out of Dysfunctional Workplace Atmosphere: The Reason Genuine Improvement Demands Structural Solutions
I’ll about to say something that will most likely anger every human resources professional who reads this: the majority of organizational dispute isn’t created by relationship breakdowns or individual conflicts.
The real cause is caused by inadequate processes, incompetent leadership, and problematic company cultures that pit workers against each other in competition for scarce opportunities.
With nearly two decades of training with companies in crisis, I’ve observed countless well-meaning companies squander enormous amounts on dispute management training, interpersonal sessions, and conversation courses while completely overlooking the structural issues that create conflict in the first place.
Here’s a classic example. Not long ago, I was hired in to help a significant financial services firm that was suffering from what they called a “communication breakdown.”
Departments were continuously in conflict with each other. Meetings frequently turned into heated matches. Staff resignations was through the roof. Service issues were rising rapidly.
Executives was certain this was a “people challenge” that could be fixed with enhanced communication training and conflict resolution techniques.
We used two weeks examining the real circumstances, and here’s what I found:
Their organization had established a “performance management” process that ranked workers against each other and tied bonuses, promotions, and even employment security to these rankings.
Units were allocated competing targets and then told to “work together” to achieve them.
Funding were systematically kept scarce to “encourage drive” between groups.
Data was restricted by different teams as a source of influence.
Career growth and rewards were awarded inconsistently based on political relationships rather than real achievements.
Of course people were in ongoing conflict! Their whole company system was designed to force them against each other.
No amount of “conversation training” or “mediation skills” was going to fix a fundamentally dysfunctional system.
The team convinced management to entirely redesign their company systems:
Substituted ranking evaluation systems with collaborative goal creation
Aligned unit objectives so they supported rather than competed with each other
Increased funding allocation and made allocation criteria obvious
Implemented regular organizational communication exchange
Created clear, performance-focused career growth and recognition criteria
This results were outstanding. Within six months, interdepartmental disputes fell by nearly 80%. Staff happiness ratings improved considerably. Customer satisfaction improved dramatically.
Additionally this is the crucial insight: they accomplished these improvements absent any extra “interpersonal training” or “mediation sessions.”
That point: fix the organizational problems that create disputes, and most communication issues will disappear themselves.
Unfortunately this is why the majority of companies opt for to concentrate on “relationship training” rather than resolving organizational problems:
Organizational transformation is resource-intensive, disruptive, and necessitates executives to admit that their existing processes are fundamentally flawed.
“Relationship training” is inexpensive, non-threatening to leadership, and enables organizations to criticize individual “behavior conflicts” rather than challenging their own management approaches.
We consulted with a hospital organization where medical staff were in constant tension with executives. Healthcare workers were frustrated about unsafe staffing ratios, insufficient supplies, and excessive demands.
Executives kept scheduling “dialogue meetings” to resolve the “communication tensions” between workers and administration.
Those meetings were more harmful than pointless – they were significantly harmful. Healthcare workers would share their valid issues about patient standards and employment environment, and mediators would react by recommending they should to improve their “interpersonal abilities” and “perspective.”
Such an approach was disrespectful to committed healthcare staff who were working to deliver good healthcare treatment under impossible conditions.
We assisted them move the attention from “relationship training” to resolving the underlying organizational causes:
Brought on additional healthcare staff to lower workload pressures
Upgraded medical supplies and streamlined supply management procedures
Implemented scheduled worker input systems for patient care improvements
Offered sufficient clerical help to eliminate paperwork tasks on patient care staff
Staff happiness increased substantially, care quality results increased considerably, and staff stability improved considerably.
This crucial point: once you fix the organizational roots of frustration and tension, employees naturally cooperate effectively.
Currently let’s address a different critical problem with conventional mediation training: the idea that every employee conflicts are resolvable through communication.
This is seriously unrealistic.
Some conflicts exist because one party is genuinely unreasonable, dishonest, or unwilling to improve their actions no matter what of what interventions are tried.
In these cases, continuing dialogue efforts is beyond being pointless – it’s actively harmful to workplace environment and unfair to other employees.
We consulted with a technology organization where one long-term programmer was consistently disrupting development progress. Such individual would regularly skip commitments, provide poor quality deliverables, fault fellow colleagues for issues they had created, and become aggressive when challenged about their performance.
Management had tried numerous resolution meetings, provided coaching, and actually reorganized work assignments to accommodate this individual’s limitations.
Nothing succeeded. Their individual persisted with their problematic actions, and good developers started seeking moves to alternative teams.
Eventually, the team helped leadership to stop trying to “resolve” this employee and rather work on protecting the morale and success of the rest of the department.
Leadership created specific, concrete output requirements with prompt accountability measures for violations. After the disruptive person was unable to reach these expectations, they were dismissed.
Their change was remarkable. Project productivity increased dramatically, morale increased substantially, and the company ended experiencing valuable developers.
That lesson: sometimes the only appropriate “problem solving” is eliminating the cause of the problem.
Companies that won’t to take difficult employment choices will continue to endure from ongoing disruption and will fail to retain their highest performing employees.
This is what actually creates results for handling organizational tensions:
Systemic approaches through sound business design. Create clear systems for performance management, transparency, and dispute resolution.
Immediate intervention when problems arise. Resolve concerns when they’re small rather than allowing them to escalate into significant crises.
Firm standards and reliable accountability. Certain actions are plainly wrong in a professional context, no matter what of the underlying reasons.
Focus on organizational change rather than personal “improvement” efforts. Nearly all organizational disputes are results of systemic organizational failures.
Good issue resolution isn’t about keeping everyone happy. Good management is about establishing effective business systems where productive staff can work on performing their jobs well without constant conflict.
End trying to “fix” your way out of systemic problems. Start building organizations that reduce systemic conflict and address inevitable conflicts effectively.
Company employees – and your organizational success – will thank you.
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