"BIG ideas start with small relationships"
Mike Schuler, Ph.D. |
TEDxGVSU
• March 2018
The research is in: people don't do well with negative confrontation; we already feel bad enough about ourselves (thank you society)! But we can all be "forgiveness brokers." We've all felt what it is like to be forgiven, and we have all forgiven.
The hardest question we might ask in our workplace is "How have I contributed to the HOT MESS?" It is more common to look at the other as a source of our problems. I've found that if we ask the question gently and give people an off ramp from their own hidden feelings, we can actually reconcile the relationships around us. It has to start with understanding how we have contributed to the toxicity. Then, these obstacles become strengths, and the collective group becomes more cohesive and human, answering, "We've all had a part in making this bad." Moving through one gate at a time, like cows going into the pasture, we can all be fed. What would it be like if we brought our unencumbered selves to the workplace? Now that's a team worth shaping!