CONFRONTATION IS NOT PROFITABLE

Imagen creada con Inteligencia Artificial

Many organizations persist in a culture of confrontation, even though they know that such a culture is not profitable.

This is the learned culture — the one that shapes the organization’s everyday behavior and generates most of its conflicts. Conflicts are rarely technical; they are almost always relational.

Therefore, it is in the improvement of relationships where we must focus our efforts to shift from a culture of confrontation to a culture of agreement.

To achieve this:

• Let’s recognize others, acknowledging their presence and perspectives, which facilitates genuine listening.

• Let’s listen to opinions and viewpoints different from our own, allowing us to understand others’ needs and ways of seeing things.

• Let’s create safe spaces where everyone can express their opinions freely.

• Let’s engage in conversations — well-prepared ones — that are not meant to judge or to convince.

• Let’s use positive language to generate a positive reality.

• Let’s build agreements with the necessary time, ensuring that all parties understand them in the same way. Reaching feasible agreements is a success in itself, paving the way toward building bonds of trust.

This process of improvement requires will and time, but the result is worth it: high relational quality that creates the conditions for both operational efficiency and well-being within the organization.

By TERESA CLEMENTE, Head of the Relational Mediation Space (EMR).