One of my articles from earlier this year just made it online, so I thought I’d share it in case you know of anyone who is struggling with workplace bullying. Click on the link below:
Workplace Bullying – What Can You Do?
It was published in an Industrial Safety magazine, so the scenario is more appropriate to the manufacturing sector, but the basic approach applies to any industry.
From The Conflict Tool Box, published by Fiona White of Mediation Matters
You may have noticed that I have recently become fascinated with how our brains work, and have shared a few TED talks and other videos that give amazing insights into our minds. Here is an incredible story from Jill Bolte Taylor – ‘A Powerful Stroke of Insight’, which describes her experiencing a brain haemorrhage, the different functions of her left and right brains, and the conflict that develops between them. Funny, poignant, and mind-blowing at the same time.
From The Conflict Tool Box, published by Fiona White of Mediation Matters
Australia is taking action to advance gender diversity in the workplace. This will hopefully have the additional benefit of reducing conflict in the boardroom. Here are the essentials from the Sydney Morning Herald:
“Finance Minister Penny Wong, recently released new guidelines for government business enterprises which require that by 2015, “no one gender can hold more than 60 per cent of board positions”.
We have known for many years that women make the key purchasing decisions; 75.1 per cent of women identified themselves as the primary shoppers for their households, according to Mediamark Research & Intelligence’s Survey of the American Consumer in 2009 and, according to a study from the Boston Consulting Group, women ”control $12 trillion of the overall $18.4 trillion in global consumer spending”.
In Australia more than half (53 per cent) of our professional classes are women and in our industry, media and marketing departments have always pushed hard to get women to higher levels.
With all that economic power and key decision-making capability, why wouldn’t any board in the country, profit or non-profit, want as many women as possible to guide its business to the market and to its customers?
From The Conflict Tool Box, published by Fiona White of Mediation Matters
This is the latest of my articles, published in HRINZ Human Resources magazine this month. It covers some of the core concepts of the neuroscience, approaches, and strategies of conflict resolution, which are essential tools for leaders.
“You aspire to be a leader in your organisation, your field and your community. you have the vision, the courage, the creativity, the integrity, and you inspire and motivate others. You create your own roadmap.
Roadblock ahead
What happens when you hit a bump in the road, when you come up against people who disagree with you or block your progress; when conflicts within your team escalate; or when someone criticises you personally? Do you steamroller over the top and insist everyone follow your direction, because after all you are the leader? Do you allow these issues and criticisms to preoccupy your thoughts and drain your energy? Or do you sit down with the people concerned and have an open respectful dialogue with them, without holding on to any particular outcome? What kind of conflict resolution skills are you modelling for those who are following you?”
From The Conflict Tool Box, published by Fiona White of Mediation Matters
Brainwave is a charitable trust which exists to educate New Zealanders from all walks of life about the latest research in neuroscience. We now know that a child’s experiences from conception to three largely determine how their brain develops, and whether they will become capable, contributing, well adjusted adults. The Brainwave Trust has a great deal of information they would like to pass on – to parents, to educators, to health professionals, to social workers, to anyone who works with or parents children.
They are currently holding public seminars in the earthquake region to educate parents about the effects of the earthquakes on young children and babies, and what they might do to help their children.
Christchurch Earthquake Effect on Infants: People often believe that infants are not affected by natural disasters such as earthquakes because they are ‘too young to remember” so they are not really affected. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The supreme importance of the first three years to the overall development of the brain and the now clear link between early experience and who we become as adults, means the infant and young child is especially vulnerable to the stress of an event such as an earthquake. Nathan Mikaere-Wallis and Miriam McCaleb, both Christchurch Brainwave presenters, have put together this video to help you support your babies and infants.
For more information visit http://www.brainwave.org.nz/
From The Conflict Tool Box, published by Fiona White of Mediation Matters
Wow! These fabulous BBC documentaries are now available t
o watch for free online. This one, The Human Mind with Robert Winston, explores the mirror neurons, the power of our frontal lobes, and many other fascinating aspects of the brain. There is even a local connection.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-human-mind/
In this three-part documentary, Robert Winston explores all aspects of the human mind – from how we learn, to how we’re able to recognise faces and what makes one person ‘click’ with another.
Episode 1: The first programme in the series uncovers what happens in our minds when we learn, remember and have original ideas. It explores what we can do to improve our ability to learn and manipulate knowledge, and shows how eating fish oils may help boost our brain power.
Professor Robert Winston looks at how memory can be improved and how we can learn physical tasks more easily. He discovers what happens when we have those “eureka” moments of original thought – and how to have more of them.
We meet the fire chief who tapped into his intuitive powers and saved the lives of his fire crew and follow a trainee midwife in the run-up to her exams. Will she be able to remember the huge amount of information she’ll need to know to pass? More importantly, can she apply it to a real childbirth?
Episode 2: Personality explores what it is that makes us who we are and uncovers the universal battle we face to master our emotions and control our behaviour.
Professor Robert Winston explores how our minds shape our personalities throughout our lives, and reveals how personality traits like extroversion and introversion develop. Find out how parents can affect the personalities of their children, why teenagers are so emotionally sensitive and what lies at the heart of characteristics like anger and mood–swings in adults.
Discover what we can change about our personalities – and what we can’t. And see a man successfully transform his personality to be more as he’d like it to be.
Episode 3: Why is a party one of the most demanding and complex situations the human mind ever has to deal with? This programme investigates the extraordinary way that our minds work to allow us to communicate with other people.
Professor Winston discovers how we recognise people, read their faces and bodies to understand what they’re thinking, and then charm them. Find out how to tell whether a smile is genuine, what happens when people ‘click’ with one another, and how to spot when someone’s lying.
We follow a young woman as she travels halfway across the world to confront her very own social obstacle course. Can she win over her New Zealand fiancé’s friends and family in the week before she gets married?
From The Conflict Tool Box, published by Fiona White of Mediation Matters
This eye-opening 7-minute TED video from Dave Meslin points out the 7 obstacles in our environment which actively discourage us from getting involved and taking action on the things that matter in our communities.
Instead of labelling most people as too selfish, too stupid, or too lazy to try and make a difference in our communities, he proposes that that people really do care and that it is our:
that block us from engaging. If we can redefine apathy, clearly identify these obstacles, and then work collectively to dismantle them, then anything is possible.
Well worth watching and sending to your contacts in the local government and the media – help to make a change in this world.
From The Conflict Tool Box, published by Fiona White of Mediation Matters
