July 16, 1:48 pm
Costs of conflict
Are you aware of how much it costs to have an ongoing conflict at work? At one recent meeting with an HR manager I learned he had created a “cost of conflict” calculator — a computer program used to determine exactly how much unnecessary conflict was costing his company.
As I suspected, the numbers were higher than most people probably realize. He said it was not uncommon to see a case of interpersonal conflict costing his company $200,000 or more. He even cited one case in which the conflict was costing his company more than $2 million.
Frankly, with this kind of data, it’s amazing that more managers aren’t scheduling conflict resolution workshops on a regular basis. (Yes, we offer them. And yes, I think our workshops are great and make a huge impact, but there are many good workshop providers available that can facilitate on this topic.)
Quick — let’s do a bit of math:
What’s the cost of a conflict resolution workshop? $1,500? $2,500? Heck, even if it was $5,000 managers would be saving TENS and possibly HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars by preventing just ONE conflict!
The problem? The cost of conflict does not appear as a line-item in the budget … Therefore, most managers are unaware of how much money conflict costs and how it impacts their bottom line.
Filed in Training, Management, Leadership, Team Building, Workplace, Corporate Culture
Discussion
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