I often wonder how people manage to stay in toxic and dysfunctional circumstances for as long as they sometimes can and do.  Some organizations and team’s feel like war zones.

While, no doubt, there are people who seem to enjoy crisis and conflict, most people prefer peace and problem solving.  Where a sense of team is missing, and where organizational breakdown and a lack of collaboration is the prevalent organizational or team characteristic, the costs are many fold.   While we do go into this in other parts of our literature, I can say just a few words that should transmit the severity of of the consequences of a toxic workplace: the first? Risk.  The second? Risk.  Both can be costly beyond measure.

While there may seem no easy fix, the core sources of such workplace toxins are findable – and solvable.  In fact, REAL Solutions Coaches specialize in working with clients to support their current and build on past culture-building efforts.  These “haven’t fixed it yet” investments can count for a lot and leaders don’t have to “throw the baby out with the bath water”.  What leaders need is support for staying clear, focused and on track: through action and research together, your current conflict management system can be better recognized, engaged, adapted and learn from what is already there and already learned.  No need for consultations, needs assessment, deep analysis and very-costly reports with recommendations and plans that tend to raise more conflict than they solve.

Through simple concept of ‘action research’, (a cycle of look, think, and act) staff, leaders and clients see action and learning take place simultaneously.  Immediate, collaborative and eye-opening results motivate them, ensuring buy-in such that any investments in action research tend to really ‘stick’.    Leadership and change effort is seen and felt as pro-active, sustained conflict management every step of the way meaning that all stakeholders see themselves taking real concrete steps and making progress.  Yes, Johnny, there is a way to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

The following is an actual example outline of one of our successful Action Research consultation projects.  You can see the approach is inclusive and is focused on organizational and cultural change.  We are happy to work to customize the approach: that’s the whole idea!

The Situation

An organization and its leaders/employees are regularly dealing with similar conflicts and chronic situations for which they have demonstrated themselves willing, but not fully equipped to manage.  They wish and need (indeed are required) to become better equipped and more consistent/effective at overcoming and resolving common types of issues affecting them.  Their small issues were escalating to major ones and the cost, time and workload was over-burdening both leaders and staff at all levels.

In addition to resolving specific and higher profile or strategic issues, they are looking to find simple and inexpensive means to improve existing systems of training, informing, rewarding and evaluating employee performance and competency: resolving many “foundational” issues for good.

Existing structures tend to be “silos” and are not sufficient to allow sharing and building knowledge about management of common concerns and long-known issues or resolve shared desire for change and innovation.

The Action Research Question

The right question (as is usual) was the first that surfaced: “How do we fix this on the cheap, without ‘fixing what isn’t broken’?  For this organization, success in answering this question required real progress against such criteria as:

• Address critical incidents
• Just in time – or through prevention!
• Information, support and resources to support improved competency/skill (training?)
• Accessibility
• Affordability

Action Research Participants/Members

• Members who find themselves regularly managing with issues within their organizations, communities
• Facilitated session focused dialogue, consultation and coaching (provided by REAL Solutions, Inc. – discounted according to use of any existing in-house resources)

Approach

Underlying Questions:

Are all organizational members affected?  Clients?

How to use the 80/20 rule effectively to support change and efficiency of this effort?

What are, and how common, chronic, severe are the issues?

Internal issues (organizational) or external (client, community) issues as priorities and motivation.

Can technology/networking/affiliates or partners fill the gaps within the current sharing and learning community?

Critical incident and action examples?

Knowledge management and sharing?

What are the simplest, best, most effective enhancements (small changes – HUGE results?)

Would it better to have available 3^rd party neutral or in-house trainers, coaches?

How satisfactory are current options, their accessibility, utility, reliability, efficiency, etc.?

What are existing, best used and reliable tools and resources in our existing conflict management toolbox/system?

This project was supported/sponsored by one key manager – by “starting where we are” and looking, thinking and acting through successive cycles of action research to shed light on small and sticky successes, the project eventually was embraced organization-wide.

Effective, efficient, and low-risk, action research takes any investment available and turns it into effective, collaborative effort and alignment-building teamwork away from the war-zone of a toxic workplace.  The action research, “take small steps to make BIG strides” approach is not then, itself, the light at the end of the tunnel, rather it is the means of moving – surely – toward it.