Today@Dal

Who hasn’t had to deal with a difficult co-worker, manager, or supervisor at some point in their career? We’ve all been there, and if not, consider yourself one of the lucky few.

Earlier this year, Human Resources and the Office of Human Rights, Equity & Harassment Prevention, launched a conflict resolution video series called Difficult Conversations. Conflict resolution is this year’s theme for Healthy Workplace Month at Dalhousie.

The 11 videos are intended to show real-life work scenarios and offer advice as to how to handle conflict situations in various roles – as an employee, co-worker, supervisor, manager, faculty member and chair.

“We heard from many employees that talking about conflict resolution was simply not enough and that is where the idea for this video series came,” says Janice MacInnis, Acting Director, Employee and Organizational Development (EOD).

Some of the video topics include - tips for having difficult conversations; how to ask to have the conversation; underlying cause of a performance issue; disruptive faculty member; complaining to others; and resistance to change.

“Since April 2012, there have been more than 852 visits to the site, and we encourage employees to use the videos as a tool to help deal with conflict resolution,” adds Gaye Wishart, Advisor, Harassment Prevention/Conflict Management, Office of Human Rights, Equity & Harassment Prevention.

You may recognize many of the actors in the videos, as they are all Dalhousie employees who generously volunteered their time and talents. Special thanks to them all for participating, and without them, these videos would not have been possible:

Åsa Kachan
Frank MacLean
Roberta Barker
Mike Wilkinson
Neil Landry
Rob Summerby-Murray
Kathy McInnis
Sherry Elliott
Suzanne Sheffield
Bill Hart
Verity Turpin
Sarah-Jo Briand
Joanne Marion
Blair Westhaver
Janice MacInnis

The video series was coordinated by Janice MacInnis and Gaye Wishart, and filmed and edited by Roger Brush and Spencer Cantley, from Dal Instructional Media Services.

Throughout the year, EOD and the Office of Human Rights, Equity & Harassment Prevention, also offer training sessions on conflict resolution and are available for team/individual consultations, if needed. Check the EOD events calendar for various topics.

For additional information about conflict resolution, visit the Office of Human Rights, Equity and Harassment Prevention’s website.