Valley PR Blog

Book review: Win at Work!

By Linda VandeVrede on July 5th, 2010 In Weekend Reading

Who among us has sailed through work environments without being part of or witnessing some sort of conflict, whether it is bullies, wet blankets, micromanagers, or troublemakers? Win at Work!/The Everybody Wins Approach to Conflict Resolution by Tucson-based author Diane L. Katz delivers an eight step “Working Circle” concept to problem-solving at work.

It’s a flexible, non-linear approach to solving issues in the workplace.  The process gets you to think, rather than follow a prescribed formula to conflicts, and that is the power of the concept. One of the key themes that Katz emphasizes in the book is that you should not go into conflict resolution with a pre-determined idea of what the other person will say, but rather with an idea of what your game plan should be and what is personally negotiable and non-negotiable.

This is a powerful way of approaching conflicts, because you focus on a different area than on trying to prepare for a debate or trying to anticipate their reaction. In order to understand one’s personal style, Katz includes a simple questionnaire that helps categorize people into one of five different styles:  attacking, confronting, problem solving, compromising, and withdrawing.

If you already have self-knowledge, you might not need to read the book. But how many of us truly understand how to approach various work conflicts? The author describes several examples of how her clients faced common problems at work, and how they use the Working Circle to analyze and solve the problem successfully, keeping in mind that success might not mean we get the result we are hoping for, but we still gain valuable insights and experience.

As Katz notes, breaking down a complex and disturbing problem often gives one a feeling of empowerment.   Part of the process is looking to your past to find examples of where you have encountered similar issues and how you dealt with them.  Have you encountered a bully before?   Have you been caught in the middle of fights and disagreements?  

The Working Circle is designed to take into account what are called the masculine and feminine approaches to conflict resolution. Rather than being gender specific, which Diane is careful to note in almost every chapter of the book,  these are just general terms to describe aggressive and avoidance approaches to conflict. The optimal solution is more collaborative.

Of special interest to PR professionals, Chapter 6 deals with ethics and conflict:  “What happens when you have to defend your organization to an outsider, all the while knowing that what your company did was not right?”  

The bottom line is that solving conflicts often takes a certain amount of courage, and the payoff is significant to personal satisfaction.    The goal of the process is to transform the individuals involved. The message of the book is don’t be intimidated by anyone or any situation. 

The Working Circle process can be applied to personal conflicts in our lives as well, and I suspect that the author’s next book will be “Win at Home!” 

Diane Katz  lives in Tucson and has a master’s degree in organizational psychology, and a PhD in conflict resolution. Win at Work! is published by Wiley and available in bookstores nationwide.  For more information, visit www.TheWorkingCircle.com.

Thanks to PR firm O’Connor Communications for bringing this book to my attention.

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