S3 Ep10: 3 Myths about Workplace Conflict - Alex Ethymiades

Decoding Culture with Dr John Curran

This episode looks at how conflict exists within organisations and team dynamics. However, much of what I will talk about with my guest will also have relevance to all areas of conflict.

From my anthropological background and as an organisational consultant, I frame conflict as part of culture and not something that sits outside culture and threatens it. Instead of running away from conflict one can reframe it as a form of communication……it is trying to tell us something that, maybe we do not want to hear because it might hold uncomfortable truths or taboos.

In this episode I speak to Alex Efthymiades who is an expert on workplace conflict and mediation. She is the co-founder of Consensio Partners and works with organisations offering training and mediation. A few years ago I had the privilege of training under Alex and it empowered me to be able to situate conflict at the core of much of what I do as a organisational consultant and team coach.

Alex brings to the conversation many important and interesting insights. One thing she said was that “every human relationship has conflict….and that is not a bad thing but a necessary thing”. She defines conflict as a “breakdown of relationships (that) can be something quite small that can become something quite big”.

Too often we see leaders shy away from address workplace conflict at an early stage and Alex and I talk more about why this is the case. Alex also explains the 3 main myths around workplace conflict.

If you are interested in organisational culture, leadership, coaching, HR, the social sciences and psychodynamic approaches of organisational consultancy, then this episode will give you a deep understanding to why conflict exists in the workplace and how it can be addressed.
Show Notes:
Alex:
LinkedIn
Consensio Partners
References cited:
Dr. Brene Brown,University of Houston, https://brenebrown.com/books-audio/

Dr. Peter Coleman, Columbia University, https://sps.columbia.edu/faculty/peter-t-coleman-phd

Dr. Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School, https://amycedmondson.com

Dr Marc Brackett, Yale University, https://www.marcbrackett.com

John:
Twitter
LinkedIn
JC & Associates
Decoding Culture Newsletter
Training Programme
TEDx Talk