Conflict gives us a reason to engage with each other on a deeper level. 

Healthy teams embrace conflict as a means for continuous improvement. 

How would your organization benefit by: 

• Deeper conversations to approach and resolve conflict  
• Deeper effort into making more sales, improving systems or safety  
• Deeper focus on personnel development, retention, and training  
• Deeper clarity to understand a problem, challenge, or new circumstance  

Engaging in conflict reminds me of fishing with my boat captain … my Dad.  He encouraged us to let lots of line out so that our bait would sink and move along the bottom of the lake. “That’s where the fish are” he’d say. The challenge we’d encounter is that there are obstacles along the lakebed, so we’d often get snagged, and then the boat would have to stop; everyone had to reel in before he’d reverse the boat to release the snag, hopefully without breaking the line and losing the tackle and bait. It seemed like such an inconvenience, and I’d hate causing that trouble for everyone in the boat.  

Like the lakebed, the work environment is rich with obstacles for conflict or opportunities to get ‘snagged’ but it’s much more lucrative and productive in deeper conversations for resolution, rather than the easy conversations that don’t confront problems head-on.

It just takes more patience, communication, and teamwork to play at that depth.  

When we find ourselves snagged on something that needs resolution… there are two choices. The inconvenient one … Stop, reverse, get unhooked and move forward with continued chances for the best fishing, or continue forward with the snag and risk losing everything. The inconvenience is just a perception. “That’s where the fish are” my captain taught me.  

Snags validate we’re fishing in a committed, courageous, and deep place. Position yourself for the greatest chance of achievement. Before you know it, you’ll hear “FISH ON!” and maybe even experience a double or triple header— (that’s when many people in the same boat hook some big fish at the same time!) 

Where do you feel you’ve been snagged but haven’t yet gone deeper to the source to unhook yourself? If you can’t find your way, call Penny Tremblay, because the high cost of conflict at work could be reeled in within a day or two of fishing with me. 

Happy Father’s Day to all Dads,