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Misalignment, managed

Conflict is natural and necessary in healthy organizations, driving innovation and growth. The challenge is how it’s handled. Most organizations default to hierarchical escalation, leaving root causes unaddressed and creating dependency on managers. Flatter organizations often lack structured ways to resolve disagreements, allowing conflicts to linger and damage trust.

And you surely can’t use conflict as a resource (38) without some way to harness the energy.

Therefore...

Establish a structured conflict resolution process that emphasizes direct communication and accountability, supported by staged escalation, as follows.

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This is based on Morning Star’s process: Employees start conflict resolution through direct dialogue, then move to peer mediation and panel reviews, successfully resolving issues ranging from minor disputes to major disagreements, with the CEO as the “Stage 4” authority figure.