Shiv Martin's Blog

Meetings have a bad reputation. I have seen many memes and reels, depicting the pointlessness and frustration that accompanies meetings both in person and online. Most people I speak to hate meetings and would happily skip a meeting to keep going with their usual tasks. I am in the minority - I love a meeting. Being a (sometimes painful) extravert whose main drivers at work is relationships and creativity, the meeting environment is certainly my happy place. Equally, nothing

This week, I want to talk about trust in conflict resolution. Over the past few months, I have supported several different public service dispute resolution teams improve their dispute resolution processes and skills. In every case, an important objective has been to ensure that the dispute resolution conversation is trust-based . Public service dispute resolution work carries unique obligations and challenges. Not only are public service dispute managers required to effecti

Creative abrasion is necessary for innovation and growth in teams and organisations. Engaging in conversations at work that challenge the status quo, can carry great risk and great reward. This is why it's important to have a conflict expert to direct the conversation. During change, uncertainty or internal disruptions, organisations often turn to meetings as a tool to bring their team together and forge a pathway forward. Unfortunately, meetings are dreaded by most workers.

Ethnocentrism is a big word, and not one I’d suggest using in a conversation, but it’s the most important word to understand if you want to improve your cultural awareness. So, what does it mean? Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge the words and actions of others through your own cultural frame of reference and to perceive your own cultural norms and values as superior. The problem with ethnocentrism is that: It's often unconscious: You might not even realise you're being

#unreasonablecontact #workplacestrategies #effectiveconflictresolution For those who have experienced unreasonable conduct or conflict in...

#goodfaith #workplaceconflict #disputeresolution In the following article, I unpack the concept of good faith from a legal perspective....

#psychologicalhazards #vicarioustrauma #workplacecomplaints Vicarious trauma is a significant health and safety hazard for most conflict...

Emotional Intelligence, often abbreviated as EI or EQ, is the ability to recognise, understand, and manage our own emotions, as well as the ability to recognise, understand, and influence the emotions of others. This concept was made famous by Daniel Goleman in his groundbreaking book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. In conflict, while our instincts are often to seek solutions to disputes through factual analysis, reasoning and debate, as Goleman’s book

Storytelling is a powerful tool that I have used to transform a conflict conversation. Humans have been telling stories for as long as we have been able to communicate. It is an art that can be very useful in conflict conversations. It is my role to assist parties to a conflict to tell their story so that they can achieve the following goals: 1. Emotional Connection: Stories make us feel the full range of emotions: joy, nostalgia, amusement, sadness, anger, fear, and empathy.

Conflict coaching is a specialised form of coaching designed to help individuals effectively manage and resolve conflicts. It involves working with a trained conflict coach who provides support, guidance, and strategies for addressing conflict situations constructively. Here's an overview of conflict coaching and how it can be applied to group conflicts. Conflict Coaching Overview: Individual Focus Conflict coaching is centred around the individual experiencing the conflict.