Accelerating Executive and Team Performance

The Grady Company accelerates the performance of executives and teams by turning their conflicts into collaboration. Our methodology draws on recent advances in the fields of neuroscience, leadership, and teamwork; as well as groundbreaking research conducted by the Harvard Negotiation project. 

Many of our clients first come to us because they are struggling with some type of conflict. If that’s true for you, here are our five most important beliefs about conflict, and what they mean for you. 

There’s nothing wrong with conflict.

Conflict is the source of creativity and innovation.  So, we don’t want to eliminate it. But, we don’t want you to get stuck in it, either.  That’s why we teach you to move beyond conflict to collaboration — even with people who disagree profoundly with your point of view.

It’s not about the content.

The most intractable disagreements are often driven less by the opinions in dispute than by the fact that neither party feels respected or valued by the other.  Sometimes this feeling is the result of communication style differences. Other times it’s structural (unclear decision processes, for instance) or systemic (overlapping roles and responsibilities). We work with you to identify the causes of conflict and take steps to ensure it doesn’t become an obstacle to the performance of individuals or teams.

Words matter.

For instance, there are many ways to say, “I’m angry.”  Some clear the air and advance the conversation.  Others leave the other person feeling defensive and uncooperative.  We help you learn to speak in a way that is candid AND collaborative.

Shoulds don’t help.

We all carry around a list of “shoulds”:  how people should – or shouldn’t – respond in given situations.  Shoulds can make sense on an individual level: they provide a code that guides our actions on a daily basis.  But, pressing someone to adopt your shoulds rarely gets you closer to a solution because your shoulds look as inappropriate to them as their shoulds look to you. Before you know it, you’re arguing about shoulds instead of generating solutions to the problem before you.    We’ll show you how to respect other people’s  shoulds – even when you disagree with them – so you can find solutions that work for all.

A lot of workplace suffering is unnecessary.

Much of the suffering we experience in the workplace is of our own making. We give your executives and teams the tools they need to create collaborative and productive work environments.  Click here to learn how.