Change Management, Stress Management, or Conflict Management – Is there really a difference between them?
When change happens, stress creeps in, and conflict feels inevitable. With various players, different perspectives, and competing priorities, anxiety feeds discord that leads to dysfunction, and emotional reactions often outweigh rational responses. Typically, stressed-out, over-anxious leaders and stakeholders show up with the infamous “fight, flight, freeze, or fawn” behaviors. People often flee by avoiding the issue, hoping it will just go away. Some individuals freeze, thinking they can “go along to get along.” People-pleasers fawn all over the place, concerned with the disappointing looks. Others favor the fight, winner take all!
What if there was a different way? (Good news, there is!)
This interactive session is built for those who lead change, encounter anxious participants, and feel stressed-out themselves. The “best-self” model centers on four practices; the interactive activities are quick, empirically based, and effective in short-circuiting the typical, emotional reactions we encounter during high-anxiety periods of change and transition.
Learning Objectives:
1. By the end of the session, participants will be able to list and describe in their own words the four practices in the “best-self” model.
2. By the end of the session, participants will be able to describe how they personally choose to engage the four “best-self” practices to mitigate their own stress and anxiety.
3. By the end of the session, participants will be able to apply this knowledge and skill to a current/future workplace change event or relationship in the next four to six weeks.
Audience:
These skills are beneficial for all levels of change management experience. This course is good for anyone who experiences stress and anxiety during periods of workplace change or transition, especially those who are sponsoring, leading, or consulting on the change process.
Speaker:
Eric Ford specializes in organizational design, effectiveness, and change through a method that leverages a person’s “best-self” during high-stress workplace episodes.
Eric holds a PhD in organizational psychology and a DMin in non-profit leadership. For 25 years, he led successful initiatives in strategic alignment, stakeholder engagement, succession planning, and performance management in health care, higher education, and faith communities. Currently, Eric serves as a Change Management and Organization Design Consultant with EMC Insurance Companies in Des Moines, IA.
Eric’s previous research includes best practices in public speaking and non-verbal communication tactics, an assessment to measure impactful change agent behavior, and a COVID pandemic study of the relationship between employee narratives and personal wellbeing. In his last project, Eric explored a novel approach to storytelling that impacted a person’s self-awareness during relational conflict at work. Currently, he is investigating employee change fatigue in relation to portfolio change saturation levels.
Sponsored by Catena Solutions - Platinum Sponsor
