Dealing with Strife – Part 2

Welcome back to Dealing with Strife - Part 2.

When dealing with strife we always want to be sure our actions in response to strife won't create more strife.

How can we quench the fire? We use water - we don’t fight fire with fire.

This week we will look at what it means to be a ‘Peacemaker’ and not just a ‘Peace-dreamer’ or thinker.

Next, how important it is to have focus and make  ‘Moving Forward Plans’?

Finally, how do we create ‘Data collection points’ in our life and business to regularly check the health and condition of each?  

What updates should we be aware of and employ to make the appropriate ‘Course Corrections, Dashboard Checks, and Change Management Plans’ that will bring the greatest effect?

=============================================================

SO WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN TO BECOME A PEACEMAKER? 

Be a Peacemaker, not just a Peace Thinker! 

John Lennon, in his most popular song maybe of all time, penned the words, ‘Imagine’.

“Imagine all the people, living life in peace. I hope someday you will join us and the world will be as one.” 

Imagination is a great beginning, but for peace to continue it has to move from an idea or just existing in our imagination, to become a real commitment in our effort and perspiration. 

A peacemaker is found in conflict, not in peace. They are not on the sideline just watching what is going on and feeling helpless. They are negotiators, mediators, intermediaries, interceders, intercessors, moderators, brokers, and active participants in reconciliation.
There is an effort in listening with curiosity, patience, persistence, and fairness. 

Contemplating being a peacemaker is not for pacifists and the timid, it is for the bold and courageous.  

What starts in imagination must end in determination for you to ‘Become a Peacemaker.’ 

For us to keep our standards high, keep fairness and values strong, never compromise too far and deal with the ugly bits of business, we will require courage, determination, hard work, overcoming discouragement, and always showing determination. 

Peacemaking is not for the faint-hearted.

DATA COLLECTION AND MOVING FORWARD PLANS

To keep emotional health in a business we need to create data collection points. Data tells a story and with no data, we are making best guesses.  Our best guesses could be so far off the mark we may create more problems than we solve. 

Your monthly/quarterly meetings with your team are critical data collection points.

We call them ERPDs:

Employment
Responsibility
Professional Development.

During ERPD Meetings we would discuss an employee's Role, Responsibility, Expectations, Amelioration Plan, Disciplinary issues, Courses, Expected Leave, and any other issues this staff member may have with clients, teams, leadership, management, suppliers, and strategic alliances.

Amelioration is the deliberate act of designing improvement and taking positive action with necessary changes.  Once we have discovered what the problem, issue, gap, barrier, or drain is, we have to apply a new level of thinking to the one that created the problem to solve the problem. 

We rarely get what we expect; it is rather what we inspect. 

The conditions we see and choose to walk past or ignore soon become the highest level of expectation of what can be achieved. 

You will reduce yourself to the lowest common denominator, not the highest potential result if you don’t use your data to bring correction and realignment. Your ‘Moving Forward’ plans acknowledge the past, but let it be the past and start the intentional step to the design of the preferred future. 

We need to be informed to make great plans.

Ignorance and assumption are two dangerous filters for strategic planning tools, as are leading before we learn, forcing people to change with no explanation or reason/vision leading to a desired outcome. 

There are many tools we provide in the space of team dynamics. The purpose of the tools is to equip the operators with information, fresh perspective, and paradigms to solve problems and restore purpose and direction. 

Like a dashboard in a car, the gauges are there to monitor the conditions of a car, like Speed, Direction, Revs, Oil Pressure, Comfort, and safety of the driver and passengers. More sophisticated dashboards surround the driver with multiple condition reports. 

Climate control, economy, distance to empty, tyre pressure, cabin safety, and so many other benefits.  Our tools inform us correctly of real issues and allow us to make necessary re-alignments and adjustments to steer back on course or fix problems before they become catastrophes.     

Strife is an undesirable and uninvited condition in many businesses. We must be vigilant in every way against strife. 

When married couples are both working in the same business, there must be intentional filtering processes installed for both people in the relationship to find personal and professional harmony.

If you have seen or can see strife in your business, ignorance is not bliss. Turning a blind eye will make it fester.  It is time for the antiseptic before you may need anesthetic in the future.

• Little problem = Little solution.
• Big Problem = Big solution. 

Have a great week and remember to Planalife you want to live in through a Business on Purpose and love living life in harmony across the two vital areas of your life. 

Cheers, Ian.