Grievances, bullying and systems

I have become aware recently of the enormous number of grievances, accusations of bullying and mediations going on in some of the organisations I work with. In some, the accusations and counter accusations have been going on for 18 months or more.

My first concern is that this seems to be to have become a way of outsourcing dealing with conflict. When people are not equipped to handle the difficulties in relationships they take recourse to formal processes. Formal processes rarely heal.

Development of skills to deal with conflict should be a priority. To generate quality thinking in complex contexts requires difference and challenge. When you have difference and challenge you probably have conflict so everyone needs to be able to work with it. (Our Influencing for Results workshop is brilliant for developing such skills by the way)

My second concern is that in some teams the pattern of grievances, counter-grievances and accusations has gone on for a long time, whilst various people have come and gone. If some of the people are changing and  the pattern is remaining then this is likely to be a systemic issue and therefore needs handling in a systemic way.

There are lots of ways of helping teams stand back and observe the larger patterns and dynamics. Sometimes just finding a way to physically represent the dynamics of the whole can be a powerful moment. This creates a different mindset and set of solutions other than looking for who is right and who is wrong.