Articles on Business, Employee Communication and Organizational Development
Bring out the Best in Your Staff, Colleagues or Workplace Team
By Marie Miyashiro-Collins, APR
Recently, an NVC trainer asked if I knew of any data to support the use of NVC in business. He was preparing a proposal for a prospective client in Japan and had heard about our firm’s NVC work with businesses, nonprofits and government agencies.
Difficult Conversations: Authentic Communication Leads to Greater Productivity (PDF)
By Martha Lasley
Imagine yourself at a tense planning meeting where the financial director reports, “To compete profitably, we need to lay off 20 percent of the workforce.” The marketing director responds, “That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.” Are you ready to add fuel to the fire, would you prefer to crawl under your chair, or do you have the skills to facilitate a conversation that could satisfy everyone in the room?
Finding Words That Work In Business
By Ike Lasater with Julie Stiles
We all face difficult conversations in the workplace: criticism from our boss, a conflict with a client, a co-worker we find irritating, a subordinate who submits incomplete work — all might entail a conversation we do not look forward to having. When we anticipate that an interaction might be complicated, there are steps we can take to engage with the other person in ways that are more likely to be satisfying.
By Rachelle Lamb
If you’re like most people, you spend a lot of time engaged in meetings — whether for work, family, or as a volunteer. In fact, the Wharton Center for Applied Research says the average manager spends up to 23 hours each week in meetings, only half of which they’d consider productive. Read on to find proven steps to substantially boost meeting productivity and efficiency with NVC.
Practical Ideas to Keep Workplace Relationships Satisfying
By Sylvia Haskvitz
Workplace relationships are complex. Each employee brings their unique self to work. Their background, perspective, emotional triggers, and working style. Add to this the dynamics of power relations, and the fact that often workplace communication now takes place at our computer keyboards rather than face-to-face.
Surviving Another Ho-Hum Day at the Office
By Melanie Sears, RN, MBA
I knew I was heading into a challenging situation when I arrived to an assignment on my favorite psychiatric unit only to be told that I was being re-directed to work in the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (Psych ICU). I gave myself some empathy for my disappointment, reminding myself that I had choice, and could always say “NO.” However, I also knew that my boss’s direction to float to Psych ICU was a demand, not a request, so any NO from me would likely have negative repercussions; I might even be fired.
By Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD.
In many corporations it’s not easy to get people to talk at the level of needs and feelings, not to mention that they don’t recognize what theologian Walter Wink says is important to know — that every institution, every organization has its own spirituality. And when the spirituality of the organization is “production over all,” that’s the only thing that counts.
Transforming Enemy Images in the Workplace
By Ike Lasater with Julie Stiles
In our encounters with people in the workplace, we will inevitably find judgments arising of ourselves or others. I call these enemy images — a term I have borrowed from Marshall Rosenberg. I have an enemy image whenever I have a judgment, diagnosis, or analysis of someone else or myself.
