Reestablishing Workplace Civility

Course Outline:
I. Understanding the problem
o The causes
o Competition/ downsizing
o Love of the game
o Heavy workload
o Lack of resources
o Competing priorities
o Personal triggers and other factors
o Disbelief/ denial by the organization
o The costs
o The individual
o Friends and family
o The organization the bottom line
II. Types and targets
o Types and baseline strategies to deal with them
o The Bully
o Mobbing/ Group Think
o The Predator
o The Time Bomb
o Case study: The Narcissist Bully
o The Target
o Who, when, why
o Identify the symptoms
o Overcome the victim mentality
o Self-help strategies
o When to know it s time to seek assistance and how to do so
o Let go of self-blame and shame
o Take action: constructively confront your tormentor
o Recover and move forward
III. Benefiting from experience: Strategies to prevent uncivil behavior in the workplace
o Prevention awareness and training
o Identify the warning signs
o Risk assessment: Identify if your workplace is prone to bullying, mobbing, or other hostile factors
o Create a change in perspective
o Learn what to do if members of your management team refuse to acknowledge, or are a part of, uncivil behavior
o Management guidelines for dealing with uncivil behavior in the workplace
o Create a comfort zone for employees where they can safely report instances of workplace bullying, mobbing, hostility, or harassment without fear of retaliation
IV. Conflict Resolution Skills Training
o Establish credibility and trust
o Identify the core of the conflict
o Communicate feelings safely and freely
o The check, balance, and reframing language communication techniques
o Reaction vs. response strategies
o Quickly identify when to walk away vs. when to talk it out
o Understand and use to your advantage the cycles of conflict and uncivil behavior
o Use humor to discharge tense situations
o Take a CAN DO approach to conflict resolution
o Role-play activity: Using the I language technique, participants will role-play two coworkers caught in a conflict over budget allocations
V. Establish a Community of Shared Trust and Teamwork
o Set organizational ethics and standards
o Explore the fine line between constructive criticism and uncivil behavior and set healthy boundaries
o Break the bonds of group think by creating a cross-functional task force
o Create a network of internal and external resources for employees to call on
IV. Deal With false alarms and self-inflicted victims
o False alarms
o Libel
o Slander
o Risk to the organizations
o How to deal with them
o Self-inflicted victims
o How do you know?
o Signals
o How to deal with them
IV. Making it Official
o Disciplinary actions
o Progressive depending on severity of infraction
o Consider the organization s liability
o Know in advance the danger of what failure to take action will result in
o Discharge do it right
o Stay within the boundaries of the law protections given to types of uncivil behavior
o Civil Rights legislation
o At-will doctrine in violation of public policy and the Whistleblower Act
o Defamation of character (libel and slander)
o Hostile work environment
o Workers compensation mental distress claims
o Create policies and procedures that provide protection to employees and the organization
o The policy
o The definition
o The process/ procedure
o The remedies
o The results