You Have More Control Over a Positive Outcome Than You Think

I was working with a leader recently who has had long-held tension with another department in her organization. There were many reasons for it, but a key one was the recurring stress of an annually occurring event.

Year after year, these two areas re-enacted an unhealthy pattern of not communicating proactively ahead of the event, waiting for the expected problems to happen, and then using the occurrence as another example of why the other department was “wrong” and they were “right.”

We worked through the issue from several angles – this precipitated her reaching out to the other department and scheduling a project planning meeting months before the event. The meeting went well, everyone agreed on the duties their teams would do and when, and, more important to the relationships, they felt a little more as though they were on the same team.

The breakthrough moments?

She realized she had a lot more control over a positive outcome than she thought, and she could take the high road and reach out first to create a collaborative process.