Thoughts and Insights by Michael Gregory

Shift How You Think About Confrontations to Impact the Outcome

The following is a guest blog post by Erika Garms, PhD, a friend and a truly insightful neuroscientist that has some very good ideas for you. I’m sorry to say that I’ve worked for plenty of dysfunctional and inefficient organizations. Perhaps many of you could say the same. As a result, I developed a burning desire to build healthier, and higher-performing workplaces for the sake of organizational results but also for the individuals who spend a third of their days within them. Five years ago, I founded consulting firm WorkingSmarts, Inc. to build healthy and high-performing workplaces.  More specifically, I help organizations to become brain-friendly by applying simple truths about how the brain works, to management and organizational dynamics.

Relationship, Trust, IRS and Negotiations

I know as a negotiator one of the most important elements towards reaching an agreement in a negotiation is to build and have trust.  In order to have trust it is important to build a relationship with the other party. This is true in any negotiation, but especially with the IRS.

Being Mortal and Discovering Interests – End of Life Decisions

As a reader of this blog you know I focus on helping clients resolve conflict and negotiate winning solutions. Today I want to focus on the very real issue of being mortal and end of life decisions. I can’t think of a more serious conflict between our medical communities, a dying patient and family members. This article takes several of the insights from Dr. Atul Gawande book, Being Mortal, that address an area often full of potential conflict with family members, the dying patient and the medical community. Dr. Atul Gawande offers great insights related to family conflict and death punctuating key elements with very insightful stories that help bring these issues home.

Why is It So Hard to Change People’s Minds?

Having a very close relative that is at polar opposites with me politically is hard, but I love him. Others have asked how do you do it? That is if you both feel very strongly in your beliefs how can you deal with these very strong polar opposite perspectives? I have found an article that explains it from the Greater Good Science Center exploring neuroscience and how we interact with one another. This makes sense to me so I wanted to go over it with you and maybe you may want to share this with others too.

An Update on Emotional Intelligence and Negotiations

On May 22, 2017 I provided a blog on Emotional Intelligence and Negotiations.  I have since received feedback and additional information that you may find useful. I wanted to share this with you for you and for you to help your clients, friends and family.

How to Successfully Resolve Conflict between Staff Members Before It Blows Up

When key players at your firm with strong technical backgrounds or strong differing opinions do not get along well with one another this can have very serious consequences on the bottom line, morale, team building and employee satisfaction. If this is not addressed sooner rather than later, this can have a very negative impact on everyone involved. This article addresses how to address and overcome these concerns.

Avoid Conflict When Considering a New Job

In this article I address three things you might want to think about, seriously consider and then evaluate before you take a new job. Having mentored many considering career changes or new positions, I wanted to share some common themes for you to consider. These are your motivation, your values and your choices. Depending on your level of passion and what drives that passion as well as your underlying values and how much they drive your choices, this will determine whether or not you should take on that new opportunity.

Five Change Management Tools to Avoid Conflict

In this article I share an experience related to conflict resolution, change management, listening and long term improvement. If these are goals of yours, this article may provide you some tools to address these issues.

Are you a person that likes or avoids conflict at work?

Conflict at work is a given. Some people enjoy a good debate and discussion with colleagues while others would prefer not to have or be involved with this type of interaction and to avoid disagreements. No matter what these happen at work. So what should you do?

Multiparty Negotiations or Mediations: A look at coalitions, alliances and groups

Negotiations between two parties offer real challenges. When negotiating with multiple parties the complexities increase exponentially. Fault lines can also develop based on gender, race, age, religion, national origin, family status, educational level or other areas. How can these be addressed in a negotiation or mediation?