Problem-Solving with Difficult Employees

Problem-Solving with Difficult Employees in an Ever-changing Environment

Stephanie Hallman

Negotiation and Conflict Management

June 13, 2008

I) Introduction

a) Seven Styles

II) Theories and the Real-World Examples

a) Six Principles of Adaptive Change

i) Get on the Balcony

ii) Identify Adaptive Challenge

iii) Regulating Distress

iv) Maintaining Disciplined Attention

v) Giving the Work Back to People

vi) Protecting Voices of Leadership from Below

1) KPMG Netherlands

vii) Problem

viii) Remediation Tactics

ix) Results

b) Six-Step Positive Deviance Model

i) Make the Group the Guru

ii) Reframe the Facts

iii) Make it Safe to Learn

iv) Make Problems Concrete

v) Leverage Social Proof

vi) Confound the Immune Defense Response

c) Untangling Complex Issue: Acorn Consulting

i) Problem

ii) Remediation Tactics

III) Personal Application

a) What is my problem and why does this problem exist?

b) Who am I dealing with?

c) What is my goal and how do I obtain it?

IV) Conclusion

Problem-Solving with Difficult Employees in an Ever-changing Environment

What is a difficult employee? One who bucks the system and is a naturally defiant attacker? One who is a procrastinator and never has an assignment completed on time, continuously avoiding work? Or a drifter, who is easy going but easily distracted and disorganized? Having the knowledge of who your work personalities are is half the battle of coping with dealing with them. Having the ability to constructively solve work related issues with a difficult employee is invaluable.

Methods of motivating people differently due to their personal, natural characteristics are depicted well in Seven Styles, written by Dalton (2006). Each of the seven styles as described below is motivated differently:

Commanders are unapproachable, bossy, result-oriented, and not tactful; to motivate properly...