Re: How to deal with the conflict in your daily work

On 2008-06-15, at 01:14 , M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
> Forgive me for being blunt, but that book ("The Five Dysfunctions of  
> a Team") is utter garbage. It ranks
> right down there in the Business Book Hall Of Shame with "The One  
> Minute
> Manager" and "Leadership Secrets of Attila The Hun."
>
> A much better take on conflict management in my humble opinion is  
> Marsha
> Petrie Sue's "Toxic People: Decontaminate Difficult People at Work
> Without Using Weapons or Duct Tape". Another excellent reference is  
> Roy
> Lubit's "Coping with Toxic Managers, Subordinates ... and Other
> Difficult People".
>
> It really doesn't take courage to implement an authoritarian  
> management
> style. What takes courage is to implement dialogue, accountability
> without blame, "we" thinking rather than "they" thinking, and an
> absolute zero tolerance for gossip, rumor and innuendo.
>
Thank you for letting us know how you feel about Lencioni's book. I  
would appreciate it if you would give me an example of something you  
strongly dislike about the book so I could better understand your  
perspective. Also, you appear to say that Lencioni's work implies  
implementing an authoritarian management style, which I did not see in  
his work, so I would really appreciate it if you would share some of  
your insight into the connection.

I have never read _Toxic People_ or _Coping with Toxic Managers_, so I  
won't comment on those.

I will venture one comment: zero tolerance does not seem to get the  
results one might expect. Examples abound, such as here: http://www.thisistrue.com/zt.html 
. I strongly, strongly doubt any zero tolerance policy, since I have  
never seen one even come close to working. Did you literally mean  
"zero tolerance", or did you exaggerate for effect?

Thanks again. I hope your book recommendations provide me with a  
perspective I have been missing.
----
J. B. (Joe) Rainsberger :: http://www.jbrains.ca
Your guide to software craftsmanship
JUnit Recipes: Practical Methods for Programmer Testing
2005 Gordon Pask Award for contributions to Agile Software Practice