Getting to the root cause of conflict & the Festival of Work

What a week! We were delighted to join CIPD 's Festival of Work this week and loved it. The energy and enthusiasm at the event were palpable, and it was truly inspiring to engage in such meaningful conversations and forge new connections. The theme of our stand was 'Growing a great workplace culture'?and it had me reflecting on just how much TCM has grown these past few years.

When I first started TCM, my primary focus was on providing mediation services to organizations. However, as we delved deeper into the challenges faced by our clients, I realized this work was akin to a kind of corporate band-aid for symptoms of much deeper issues - namely, the lack of a strong and positive workplace culture. A company's culture is the foundation upon which everything else is built - its values, beliefs, behaviours. A great workplace culture fosters engagement, productivity, and innovation, while a toxic culture can lead to high turnover rates, low morale, and diminished performance.

As we continued to work with organizations, it became increasingly clear that providing mediation services alone was not enough. We realized that to truly make a lasting impact, we needed to help organizations cultivate a culture that promotes open communication, trust, and respect.

Over the past few years, TCM has undergone a significant transformation. We have evolved from a mediation service to a comprehensive workplace culture consultancy to include brands such as?The Investigation Company,?Engage Coaching,?Engage Leadership,?People&Culture Consulting,?UKResolution,?The Mediation Company,?The Resolution Framework?and?Apaxio.

I'm incredibly proud of my colleagues who came together to build and host our stand.

A huge thank you to all of you who stopped by to share your struggles and stories with us - stay tuned to hear the news of our prize winners!

>> Read our full write-up of the Festival <<

What's your workplace wish?

In order to enter our prize drawing at the Festival of Work, we asked visitors to share their 'workplace wishes' with us:?In an ideal world, what would your workplace look like?

It was a great conversation starter and the responses were strikingly aligned. Unsurprisingly (to me) we saw deep themes of transparency and clear communication, flexibility, support from leadership, and an emphasis on the mental health and wellbeing of employees. We can't wait to read through the rest. Please do share yours with us here- let's make them happen together!?

Huge congratulations to the team at the?The Association of Commonwealth Universities?as our Customer of the Week! ??ACU decided to bring some TCM insight to their popular drop-in Lunch & Learn?series through a tailored version of our Quality Conversations course.

The workshop, led by the wonderful Annabel Stewart,?focused on how to have difficult conversations and overcome the usual doubts and protestations of 'I just can't bring this topic up...' Participants walked away with tools and tips and links for further research.

Dawn James, People Manager at ACU, said the workshop really helped them develop self-awareness and 'the importance of active listening, empathy, and curiosity as the key components of a high quality conversation.'

We're so glad to hear it and wish them all the best and much courage in tackling the difficult conversations we all face in the workplace (and life)??

An alternative to traditional grievance and discipline

In my conversations at the Festival this week, I kept coming back to our Resolution Framework, our alternative option to traditional grievance and disciplinary policies for HR. Because while improving communication and launching initiatives that are more people-focused can be effective, policies are where the rubber meet the road.

We're now offering this tool open source to any organization who wants to transform their policies and procedures and put the human back in human resources :) Download your free copy. Join the #ResolutionRevolution !

The TCM Reading Corner

I had both my books on sale at the Festival of Work, Transformational Culture and Managing Conflict, and I was surprised and pleased how many people purchased Managing Conflict. Clearly, navigating conflict and disputes in the workplace remains a major source of stress for many.

This book is a practical one and pulls from my decades of hands-on experience in conflict resolution and?shows HR professionals how to tackle these problems by not only resolving current issues, but also preventing future instances. You can find it here.

That's it for now. If you have any questions or queries relating to any of the content above, please feel free to contact me.

Have a great weekend! - David