How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress

Chapter Eleven

Creating Cultures of Appreciation: Respect, Pride, and Fiscal Responsibility

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone,person to person.

—Mother Teresa

 

I was attending my fourth meeting with the executive team at a high-tech company. We were well on our way...addressing the underlying reasons for tension within the group. When I had first arrived at the company three weeks earlier, Hans, the CEO, told me that their executive meetings dragged on, hour after unproductive hour, punctuated by outbursts of hostility and blame.

Hans told me that people left the meeting with migraines and often team members would refuse to talk to each other for days after their gatherings.

We had made progress. This was our fourth meeting and we were proceeding ...