A simple, yet powerful, approach to resolving conflict involving a compliant is to ask the complainer, “So what do you want me to do?” The technique has a disarming effect: You adversary is stopped in his or her tracks and must now clearly articulate the problem. This technique is particularly effective for minor complaints, such as a customer who is dissatisfied with a service or someone who dislikes a report you prepared.

After the complainer articulates what the real issue seems to be, the demand often diminishes. A customer might be ranting and raving about a 10 – day delay in shipment of valuable merchandise. When you ask the customer what he really what you to do, the customer say simply. Well, how about a small discount on my invoice?”

A larger conflict, such as a labor union demanding a greater share of a company’s profits from investing pension money, might not be as easy to resolve with the magic question. The union leader might reply, “We want 20 percent of those profits distributed to our retired workers.” Your generosity just reduced company profits by about $10 million for this year alone.

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Tags: Business

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