RECENT EVENTS

Our recent events include the following.

Workshop & Forum (Live Event)
Bullies in the midst? – Identify, confront and work with the sharks.

Bullying in senior manager ranks had been hot in the news just ahead of this wide-ranging workshop, which aimed to pin down what can be done to tackle bullies who hold power. A very interactive session drew upon research into social brains and social networks, the findings of our recent ICMF survey and varied delegate experiences of pin-pointing and confronting bullying behaviours - from aggression to manipulation, narcissism to autocracy, the overt and the unseen.

Our guest speaker – Margaret Chapman – one of the leading pioneers in emotional intelligence research and development, provided substantial food for thought and some participants reported back after the day that they'd immediately put some of the practical techniques that were introduced into live use!

Topics covered included:

• When is there a place for 'strong' leadership - how to work with this and what this means
• Non-violent communication
• Bully styles and tactics
• Co-operation, conciliation or confrontation?
• When the bully is the boss - tackling bullies who hold power
• Sensitive labelling and follow-up
• Cognitive techniques for managing bullying-related stress
• The evolutionary psychology perspective - social brains and social networks
• Guidance for describing and dealing with bullying (beyond the staff handbook)
• 'Bully-beating' micro-tools.

An extract from the delegates' pack and selected slides.

Workshop & Forum (Live Event)
Conciliation, Arbitration and Mediation In Teams.

The new year got off to a wonderful start in the beautiful surrounds of 21 Arlington Place in London with a mix of lively discussion, insightful presentations and valuable networking.

The day offered a learning and practical workshop focus, introducing a range of micro-tools, insights and techniques to use when managing group conflict. Our guest speaker, Julian Gibson (a senior advisor with Acas) gallantly battled against the snow in deepest Kent to be with us, offering an insight into the many roles of Acas, as well as sharing learnings from his many years' experience as an arbitrator and mediator. Others joined us from as far afield as Devon, Yorkshire and the East Midlands for what was an inspiring and highly informative day

Taking ACAS’s main aim as a theme - to improve organisations and working life through better employment relations- the workshop explored a wide range of aspects of team conflict. Thanks are also due to Maggie, who not only offered a warm welcome to visitors as they arrived, but revived her former role as an actress to provide a well received role-play!

Topics covered included:

• What ACAS has learned
• Approaches for preventing team conflict, and combating it when it does
• Mediation and arbitration for groups
• Options for building resilience - regulation and the recipe
• Constructive channelling.

An extract from the delegates' pack and selected slides.

Workshop & Forum (Live Event)
The Art of Solving Cross Words.

One of the UK's most senior former hostage negotiators, an NLP specialist and conflict coach were amongst those presenting fascinating insights into the art of 'reading beyond the words' in observing how others communicate in conflict dialogues. We also learned how new research from the world of neuroscience might urge us to be cautious about the often assumed non-verbal language that is popularly taught, and heard a very thorough explanation of the implications of new UK employment legislation from City of London Employment Law specialist Gary Freer.