Finding your eighteenth camel

June 2013

Greetings!

The Center for Business & Industry handles all sorts of training requests from a myriad of companies throughout the Lehigh Valley. We get questions regarding training on Healthcare to Safety to Computers and everything in between. But, there's not a week that goes by that we don't get a request about handling difficult conversations.

It seems that the influx of the Millennial generation, people's reliance on technology and the explosion of social media has caused the "perfect storm' of poor communication. And, any time there's a communication breakdown, conflict is sure to follow.

In addition, in today's slow economy, the stakes are higher than ever. No company can afford to allow a poorly crafted email or tweet to blow up into a controversy. Nor can we let negotiations break down because no one was able to find common ground. Please read on for more information on how to diffuse conflict and create better communication.

DIFFUSE CONFLICT BY FINDING YOUR EIGHTEENTH CAMEL

Damian J. Dinan

William Ury: The walk from "no" to "yes"
(19 minutes in length)

In a recent TED Talk, William Ury relays an old story about a man who leaves his three sons seventeen camels. To his eldest son he leaves half of the camels, to the next he left a third of the camels and to his youngest son he left a ninth of the camels.

This immediately causes conflict, as seventeen is not evenly divided by two, three or nine. So, the brothers seek the council of a wise old woman. She offered them one of her camels to make the number an even eighteen. The brothers then divided the camels. The eldest brother took his half, nine camels; the next brother took his third, six camels; and the youngest brother took his ninth, two camels. And since nine plus six plus two equals seventeen, they had one camel left over, so they gave it back to the wise old women.

When faced with conflict or a difficult conversation, we should all seek our eighteenth camel, something that allows us to take a step back and view the problem from a new perspective. In this story, the brothers were so focused on what was in it for themselves; they failed to see a bigger picture. When we are faced with conflict it is easy to make it all about ourselves and get wrapped up in what you need. And of course, if we allow emotions to enter the mix, then we meet anger with anger and frustration with frustration.
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THE ASPECT AND REALITIES OF WORKPLACE FATALITIES: Event Recap

May 16, 2013

Tom Barnowski, Director, Corporate & Public Safety/Chairman, LVSC

On May 16, CBI and the Lehigh Valley Safety Committee (LVSC) presented an event on what to expect should the unthinkable happen in your organization. In 2011, 4,693 American workers died as a result of fatal injuries incurred during work related incidents. While many companies have emergency action plans or emergency communications standards in place, do they really know what to expect when tragedy occurs? This was the inspiration for The Aspects and Realities of Workplace Fatalities presentation.

From incident through phases of recovery and aftermath, our expert presenters provided meaningful discussion and statistics outlining the emotional and economic toll on an organization when they experience a work related fatality. Specifically, the program included perspectives from internal and external response, regulatory organizations and legal bodies. To view a list of participants, please click here. The event, continental breakfast, lunch and all materials were provided at no cost thanks to the generosity of the following corporate sponsors: Brandenburg, CSI Material Handling, Smooth-On, Inc., ASSE Chapter of the Lehigh Valley, EHD and Lehigh Valley Plastics.

Some of the feedback from attendees included:

"Level of training, involvement and understanding superior to all other seminars that I

have attended."

"This seminar far surpassed my expectations."

"Excellent program! Interaction and questions helped to keep everyone in engaged."

Zachary Lyseck,
County of Northampton,
Det. Lt. Mark DeLuzio,
Bethlehem Police Dept.

Finally and most importantly, many of the participants walked away from the event vowing to review their emergency action plans and those who haven't implemented plans, vowed to develop one. All in all, the goal of the committee was met; to make the Lehigh Valley safer for employers and employees. For those interested in attending future presentations or joining the committee, please click here to download the LVSC flyer and calendar of events. To view additional images, please click here.

CBI Workshop Resources