Walk Towards Trouble

Emery Koenig is retired Vice Chairman and Chief Risk Officer at Cargill, where he worked for 37 years managing operations around the globe.

Emery highlights the general principle that as a manager, you need to walk towards trouble, and not avoid problem people that you need to deal with. The longer you avoid directly addressing such behavior, the longer you let people under bad managers suffer.

Discussion Questions

1. Avoiding confrontation is very common in the workplace. Have you seen such behavior (or perhaps done it yourself) and what were the outcomes of avoiding conflict?
2. Have you seen people (or yourself) walk towards trouble, confront it, and end up with success? What was that situation like?
3. What are things to remember or practices to apply to help ensure that you deal with trouble when you see it? How can you help yourself or others to make the right decision in those circumstances?

Possible Assignment/Activities

Have students read the Art and Science of Conflict Management and then have them watch this video and ask them how they deal with conflict, and how they think they could improve the way that they deal with conflict in the workplace? https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/employee-relations/viewpoint-art-science-conflict-management#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20comprehensive,of%20nearly%20400%20million%20workdays.