Arbitration & Mediation

Negotiating a Conflict-Resolved Workplace

By Victoria Pynchon

Want a horror story for Halloween?

Remember that Heller Ehrman collapse?  Seems that you don't get COBRA benefits if the health plan your former employer maintained is kaput because it has gone out of business.

Now think, pending surgery, no health insurance, pre-existing condition. 

Why do I lead a post about resolving work-place conflict with bankruptcy and tragedy?  Because no 100-year old AmLaw100 firm fails so spectacularly without having made some conflict resolution mistakes.

Can you eliminate conflict in the law firm?  Hellllloooooooooooooooo???????????  We're lawyers who Anne Reed at Deliberations this morning reminds us have been characterized as . . . well . . . sharks with

skin that is tough and rough -- covered with thousands of tiny hard teeth call denticles that abrade any passerby made of softer stuff. Lawyers are also thick-skinned. Easily identified by their humorlessness and abrasive personalities, they are the bane of many social gatherings.

Ouch!

What to do?  Apologize when your "denticles" abrade passersby, but more importantly, ask yourself the most important Bob Sutton-inspired organizational wellness question noted over at The Non-Billable Hour this morning:

 What Happens When People Make a Mistake?

 

 

Full post as published by Settle It Now Negotiation Blog on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).