FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        CONTACT:  Cathy Stone
                                                       617-491-6289
                                                       castone@chacocanyon.com

                 April Is Workplace Conflict Awareness Month
     Employers: Bring an End to Feuds, Email Flame Wars and Explosive Meetings

BOSTON, MA, April 4, 2012 -- April is Workplace Conflict Awareness Month, a time 
when employers and employees everywhere can pause for an hour or so to look at 
what they can do to convert destructive conflict into a force for creativity.

Conflict can be creative or destructive. Anyone who works knows of or has 
experienced micromanagers, bullies, aggressive co-workers, screaming sessions at 
meetings, email flame wars, abusive bosses, and lots more. And we've also 
experienced disagreements that resulted in better outcomes than either side had 
in mind in the first place.

Rick Brenner, a management consultant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developed 
Workplace Conflict Awareness Month to address the problem of destructive 
conflict at work.

"We need to change the way we view workplace conflict," says Brenner. "Too many 
believe that conflict is always bad, so we stuff it down out of sight, until it 
turns really destructive. Finally, when it's so powerful that nobody can control 
it, it surfaces, and people hurt each other. Sometimes it even gets physical."

We can't eliminate conflict, but we can eliminate destructive conflict. If we 
value conflict, if we know how to keep it creative, and if we know how to make 
it creative if it turns destructive, we can keep from hurting each other at 
work. The concept is simple: conflict is OK, as long as it's respectful.

And making this change has a huge return on investment. When we keep conflict 
creative, we're happier, we're less stressed and we're more productive. What we 
do produce is of higher quality.

Mr. Brenner offers employers and employees Ten Insights for Managing Conflict. 
Here are his top three:

   * In destructive conflict, everyone plays a role. Some people are stars, 
     but everybody owns a piece.

   * Sending the stars of the conflict to "conflict training" probably won't
     work. Conflict is a system thing. Think System.

   * Conflict and Life go together -- you can't have one without the other.
     The trick is to keep Conflict creative.

In 1993, while researching low-cost software development methods for the 
Department of Defense, Mr. Brenner began to suspect that part of the solution to 
lowering development costs lay not in the next hot new technology, but in 
finding better ways for engineers to work together. That work eventually led 
Brenner to develop Workplace Conflict Awareness Month.

Journalists and producers are welcome to peruse an archive of dozens of short 
articles (500 words) about conflict. Sample titles: "The Tweaking CC," 
"Emailstorming," "Top Ten Signs of a Blaming Culture," "The Fine Art of 
Quibbling," and "Hurtful Cliches." Mr. Brenner is available for interviews on 
any of the topics listed there, or on other conflict-related topics. Ideas for 
observing Workplace Conflict Awareness Month are at 
http://www.ChacoCanyon.com/wcam.shtml . 

                       About Chaco Canyon Consulting

Mr. Brenner is principal of Chaco Canyon Consulting. He works with people in 
problem-solving organizations that are making products so novel or complex that 
they need state-of-the-art teamwork and stronger relationships among their 
people. In his 20 years as a software developer, software development manager, 
entrepreneur and consultant, he has developed valuable insights into the 
interactions between people in technical environments, and between people and 
the technological media in which they work. He focuses on improving personal and 
organizational effectiveness in abnormal situations, such as dramatic change, 
technical emergencies, and high-pressure project situations. He has written a 
number of essays on these subjects, available at his Web site, ChacoCanyon.com, 
and writes and publishes a weekly email newsletter.

CONTACT:
Cathy Stone
Chaco Canyon Consulting
(866) 378-5470
(617) 491-6289
http://www.ChacoCanyon.com
castone@chacocanyon.com

RESOURCES:
Images at http://www.ChacoCanyon.com/press-releases/wcam-images.zip
Other links available in the PDF version: 
http://www.ChacoCanyon.com/press-releases/wcam.pdf