The results of 25 years of working with organizations…

in both the public and private sectors, providing training, team building workshops and coaching services, have led us to a striking conclusion: our services are effective because they are grounded in conflict management—a factor critical to organizational success, and by extension, high productivity.

Why work with the Quinn Company?

Relationships are central to creating a positive work environment and to accomplishing quality work. Conflict, in the form of protecting turf, personality differences, arguments, and differences in perspectives (to name a few examples) is usually detrimental to creating a positive, productive work environment.

Conflict is inevitable, however, in every aspect of our lives. Most people spend a great deal of time and energy trying to ignore it, avoid it, or overpower it. These actions are counterproductive and can damage the quality of relationships and an individual’s or team’s overall effectiveness. For these reasons, we have made it our company’s goal to help people transform conflict into a positive force and therefore create a new paradigm: a conflict is an opportunity to repair and strengthen work relationships and improve productivity.

Susan R. Quinn, Principal

Susan Quinn has over 25 years of business and training experience. She has owned and operated her own training and consulting businesses for over 20 years. She specializes in helping organizations and individuals deal with conflict and change. Her clients include financial institutions, engineering companies, professional organizations, government entities, hospitals, cable firms, high technology, telecommunications and non-profit organizations.

Susan has a master's degree in Management and Organizational Behavior. She is authorized to administer the Personal Profile DiSC system. She has also authored two books and numerous published articles. She is a member of the American Society for Training and Development and the Southern California Personnel Management Association.

 

Our Approach to Conflict

Our first undertaking to change the conflict paradigm is to discuss and reach an understanding with management about how healthy working relationships are central to having a positive and productive work environment. We explain that conflict is a form of energy. It can manifest as a destructive energy, or it can be channeled into a positive force that strengthens relationships. Once we reach an understanding, we then determine the most effective approach to educating employees.

If there is a desire to change the broad employee population’s perceptions of conflict, and provide the tools to deal with it skillfully, we may recommend a training approach. In this approach we design and deliver workshops that are tailored in schedule and content to the organization’s needs.

If we determine instead that a particular group is experiencing conflict, we may recommend a facilitated approach to working with that group. With this strategy, we first identify the underlying issues; we then design a project approach to deal with those issues and resolve them in a way that begins to mend damaged relationships and ultimately improves team functioning and effectiveness.

Finally, in some cases one or more employees may be the focus of ongoing problems with other co-workers. In this event we recommend a coaching relationship. As part of our coaching process we typically interview people who work closely with the employee(s), in order to identify related performance and behavioral issues. Then we meet and work weekly or bi-weekly with the individual(s) to help him or her identify alternative ways to interact with others.