MBS Conflict Resolution Services

03/03/2023

Are you feeling nervous about an upcoming job interview or unsure about how to negotiate your salary? Don't worry, I got you covered!

My interview preparation and negotiation services are here to help you shine and get the job offer you deserve. I provide personalized guidance and training to help you master your interview skills, develop your personal brand, and negotiate your salary and benefits with confidence. With my support, you'll be ready to ace that interview and secure the job of your dreams. Contact me now to learn more!

==>www.Mbsconflictgroup.com

08/01/2022

Kagio town is where I learned that the ability to change hearts and mind- or what they call Persuasion-is one the most important skills that can get you almost anything you want in the world.

Kagio town is the crosswords of Kirinyaga. Its about 7 Kilometers South of Baricho. It is to Kirinyaga county what Indiana is to America: the ultimate crossroads.

Kagio is a historical town. When the scramble for Africa took shape and Britain descended on Kenya, the governor in charge of the whole country was based in what today is known as Machakos. His representative in the modern day Central Kenya was based in Kagio. It is while at Kagio that Captain Hall designated Murang’a as Fort Hall. In fact, Murang’a and Nyeri beberu officials had to report to-you guessed it right-Kagio.

And it’s Kagio where I first met Mûrimi. I was moonlighting as a conductor for the matatu christened Mkulima Shambani Baricho.

Kagio town was the ultimate base where matatus plying Kagio-Baricho route made a killing.

Mûrimi had earned the nickname “Makanju” which stemmed from the day he called out students from Lower Baricho Primary school for stealing mangoes belonging to the Public Works office just outside of Baricho

“Macio nî ma Kanjû…” (don’t take those mangoes, they belong to Kanju)

Mûrimi was the conductor for the Matatu christened Tonyia Inji Kenda. Word was prevalent that his matatu would get all the passengers and some even waiting hours on end just to board the matatu.

The matatu was an old, grey Datsun with a capacity of 12 passengers in the main cabin and 2 in the front cabin.

I observed Murimi at work, because as they say, if you can’t beat them, join in.

One day, students at the popular St. Agnes girls were reporting back to school. My Matatu had 12 passengers and only needed 2 more and we would be on our way to Baricho. On that day it was open bidding as opposed to the traditional organized manner where matatus would line up on first come, first served basis

Murimi’s vehicle had 6 passengers. Then came a woman and her daughter who was dressed in the traditional St. Agnes girls regalia: oversized black shoes, long white socks, and the colorful pink and white stripped dress.

I thought this was it.

“Ino irenda eri tuthie…” (this matatu only needs 2 more passengers) I let her know

I expected her to make the obvious choice..

Out of nowhere Murimi joined in

“Uboro waku auntie. Mumite Nairobi kana? (How are you auntie….)

The lady: iii tumite Nairobi

Murimi: iya. Niwangenia muno ni kwaria kihaha. Ithue thumiu nirobi (ah, you made me smile, here we have a different pronounciation of Nairobi)

Then he turned to the daughter who was at this time clutching to mom’s hand

“Unarufi Shule? Ufanye bidii ununue gari uniletee hapa, Sawa..”

The daughter laughed. The mom laughed too. This was not going the way I expected. Why are they giving Murimi the attention while my matatu needed 2 passengers!

Then Murimi went for the Jugular

“Gakari ni karia.. karenda atandatu. Tondu umunogu ni gathabari uka ngube giti baria mbere. Na umuthi turamaiga bau cukuru (this is the car. Needs 6 more passengers. I see you are tired. We shall make sure to drop you right outside the school)

I stood there, transfixed. Murimi headed to his matatu and had a conversation with the passenger who had taken one of the seats in the front cabin. The passenger stepped out.

It was an easy decision. The lady opted to go with Murimi’s matatu even though it had more seats to be filled

With acuity of hindsight, persuasion worked for Murimi. He is how:

1. Murimi checked on the subjects: The 200 year old Aristotlian theory teaches us that people are moved to action by how another person makes them feel. Murimi made the two feel cared for.

2. Murimi added light humor and also tapped to the power of diminished impact: “gakari” which sounds nicer. Studies show that whoever masters metaphor can create any mental picture which in turn compliments the story… see Murimi’s juxtaposition of Nairofi vs Nirobi

3. Murimi acted on his promise of seating the mom and the daughter in the front cabin. His actions matched his words and as a result earned credibility.

4. Murimi assuaged the mom’s fear of trekking from Baricho town to the school, which is a walk of about a kilometer.

5. In the time Murimi spent talking with the passengers, he was fully present and had their attention.

Have a persuasive day.



==>https://www.mbsconflictgroup.com===

07/04/2022

We can we learn about persuasion from Mark Anthony?

At the end of the 16th century, William Shakespeare wrote the play Julius Caesar, that dramatizes the conflict and intrigues that surrounded Caesar's death in 44 B.C.

Brutus was among those who assassinated Caesar, but with brilliant oratory, convinced the Roman populace that he had done what was best both for them and for the greater glory of Rome. He stirred up in the crowd a loathing of Caesar, and of those like Mark Anthony who had remained loyal to Caesar.

When Mark Anthony rose to address that same crowd, he had work cut out for him. Before he uttered his first words, a belligerent voice from the mob yelled, "T'were best he speaks no harm of Brutus here." Another voice shrieked, "This Caesar was a tyrant." Another howled, "We are blessed that Rome is rid of him."

Everybody was anti Mark Anthony.

Mark Anthony realized he would be lucky to live through that night. Persuasion and the style of delivery of his speech, became a life and death matter.

Mark Anthony did three things in that speech that makes it stand out as a piece of oratory genius.

First, he treated the crowd with respect. "Friends, Romans, countrymen," he said, "lend me your ears...."

Next, Mark Anthony demonstrated his understanding of the popular point of view and his acceptance of people's right to their own opinions. He succinctly reflected back to them the parts of Brutus' speech that had deeply affected them and at the same time demonstrated that he heard the jeers from the crowd.

“The noble Brutus," continued Mark Anthony, "hath told you Caesar was ambitious. If it was so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath Caesar answered it." He continued in this veins, summarizing their concerns and opinions.

After demonstrating he understood the crowd’s perspective, the Roman politician proceeded to the third step: he stated his own opinion in non-inflammatory words and presented some important evidence:

"He was my friend, faithful and just to me; but Brutus says he was ambitious and Brutus is an honorable man. He (Caesar) hath brought many captives to Rome, whose ransoms did the general coffers fill. Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? ..... You all did see that the Lupercal 1 thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?”

The odds for Mark Anthony's survival that day, March 15, 44 B.C., were slim indeed. Mark Anthony knew that in such a crisis, he had to treat the crowd and his opponents with respect and listen attentively and demonstrate his understanding. By doing this, and being a persuasive leader, he was able to drain off the anger of the people standing before him.

After Mark Anthony dealt with the (angry) emotions, the people were ready for facts as he saw them.

Persuasion is all harnessing what I call Triple H

Let’s have a chat about persuasion.

=> https://www.mbsconflictgroup.com

GAIN INSIGHTS IN A FEW MINUTES THAT IMPROVE HOW YOU HANDLE CONFLICTConflicts can be the most challenging part of our personal and professional lives.Conflicts are prevalent in every business-big or small-and managers know this. In many cases, resolving conflicts at work becomes an ongoing job. If yo...

06/09/2022

What kind of work place conflict are you going through at the moment?

02/07/2022

Research shows that 68% of women are likely to accept a job without negotiating the salary. They just accept what has been offered

Women get a nervous feeling about negotiating for higher pay because they are assume self-advocating for higher pay would present a socially difficult situation for them — more so than for men.

Help is here!

Read more in this article

In October 2020, a client named Rachel reached out to me. She was a week away from interviewing for a job she had eyed for two years in a manufacturing company. She described the job as “My dream job.” As a single mother of a 2-year-old son, one of the things Rachel wanted in her new job was the...

01/20/2022

Have you ever encountered someone who you know too well has what it takes to successfully complete a difficult, heck Herculean task yet that the person has self doubt and isn’t convinced about their abilities?

If you do, use the WWBR method which we learn about in the series Money Heist

See, the Professor is about to turn himself in and before he does, he asks Alicia to find Tatiana and Rafael who had stolen the gold.

And he (Professor) applies what I call WWBR when dealing with a person who has self doubt:

W: WHAT: the Professor articulates the mission. This clarity is important

W: WHY: the Professor explains attributes that make Alicia the best fit for the mission. He reminds her of previous instances where she overcame odds. This serves to remind Alicia that she has been in similar situations before.

B: Body Language: Professor’s body language and tone rhyme perfectly with the persuasive words. He keeps eye contact with Alicia and uses his hands to effectively anchor the points.

R: Result: Professor reminds Alicia what awaits her upon victory….and in this case, uses the word “history…” no better word to use when talking about Result than the word “History….”.

This method (unfortunately) works well with proper training

Let me teach you how to properly implement WWBR

Contact me via this website

www.mbsconflictgroup.com

01/13/2022

Conflicts come and go, but what about the relationship with the people you had conflict with?

A conflict isn’t resolved fully if the relationship is affected

12/16/2021

Every culture has its own way of thinking, unique preferences, its own values, and beliefs.

Going out of your way to understanding other people’s cultures and what they hold dear can mean the difference between sealing a multi-billion dollar contract and going home empty-handed.

A moment of cultural intelligence helped Judith Faulkner turn a 700,000 ($70K) business into a $30 billion behemoth

After graduating with an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin in 1979, Judith wrote a program to centralize and track patient information. It took her 4 years to finish what would become the first electronic medical system in America. She called it “EPIC.”

With the PC revolution of the early ’90s, it wasn’t strange that Epic was a hit with medical professionals.

Then the big sharks started calling: Microsoft, Oracle, name them. She wasn’t keen on any offer to buy out offer.

In 2003, Epic had sales of $100M and 900 employees. A big break was beckoning, but every righteous wind had to blow in the direction of Judith and Epic to pull this off.

That is because Kaiser Permanente came calling. They wanted a company that provided the same services that Epic provided.

But there was a problem for Judith and Epic

At that time their chief rival was a company called Cerner. It was the company on the lips of almost everyone in the healthcare industry. In fact, Cerner was three times the size of Epic and given the gargantuan size of Kaiser Permanente, its easier to see why Cerner was favored to get the deal over Epic

The contract the two companies were gunning for was valued at $4 billion. At that time, this was regarded as the biggest in the health record history

Now Kaiser Permanente put together a team of professionals, specialists and experts to visit the county and check out Cerner set-ups. Believe it or not, they were to visit only 1 Epic hospital. And that was it!

When the team from Kaiser visited Cerner, Cerner did not let everyone in the team check their setup. In fact, their representatives chose who to speak to out of the team sent by Kaiser. After all, Cerner was a big company and big companies tend to have egos bigger than my ears.

Remember the team from Kaiser was to visit just one Epic hospital?

Judith Faulkner allowed everyone from the Kaiser team to check out anything and everything they wanted. She treated the team from Kaiser like her colleagues

And that is how Epic won the Kaiser Permanente deal.

Today, Epic is the market leader in health records in America, and has over $3 billion in revenue, with a team of more than 10,000 employees

Today, Judith Faulker has a net worth of $6 billion.

Culturally, people can either be Specific or Diffuse. Specific people don’t care about relationships. They want to get down to the business of the day. On the flip side, Diffuse people believe that good relationships are vital to meeting business objectives

The team that Kaiser sent to Cerner and Epic for the most part, was culturally Diffuse. Granted that Cerner failed to adequately prepare for this meeting, no way, no how, did it cross their mind that being culturally aware can make all the difference when the stakes are damn high.

Do not go into a high stake negotiation blindly. If you are close to a high stake negotiation and want to make sure all your bases are covered, talk to us

www.mbsconflictgroup.com

11/30/2021

"When I got hired in my firm, I was grateful. There wasn’t even thought of negotiating at all. I thought I was there to do a good job.

Now I realize that that’s one of the challenges that we have as women: We don’t negotiate for ourselves. We don’t negotiate hard. And I realized that again later on when I had Malia, my first child. After a while, I asked for part-time work [at the University of Chicago]. And I did the same job, part time. Essentially, I just got paid less. That was the first time I realized I would never again work part time, because that’s not a good deal for women.”

Michelle Obama

How well do you negotiate? Let us help you sharpen your negotiation skills

https://www.mbsconflictgroup.com/blog/michelle-obama-women-must-learn-how-to-negotiate

11/24/2021

Let me tell you something about Dan Price

By the age of 31, Dan was a millionaire. In his teens, Dan had founded Gravity Payments, a credit card processing company. His annual salary was $1.1 million. The company is based in Seattle.

At the age of 20, Dan dated a girl named Valerie. The relationship did not last, but the two remained friends. In fact after a stint serving in the military, Valerie was hired by Gravity Payments.

One day while hiking with Valerie, Dan learned that her Ex-girlfriend was struggling to pay bills . The $40,000 annual salary that Dan's company was paying her wasn't meeting Seattle's high cost of living. Valerie informed Dan she wasn't alone; a lot of staff were also struggling.

Dan decided to create a different culture at his company. He introduced a $70,000 minimum salary for all his (more than 100) staff. And he took a pay cut of $1 million to make this possible.

Did this make any difference?

In an interview with Bloomberg, Dan noted that before the $70K minimum wage, the company was having between 0 and 2 babies born per year amongst the team. Within 4 years, the company had more than 40 babies born amongst the team.

Isitoshe,

More than 10% of the company staff have been able to buy their own homes in one of America's most expensive cities for tenants. Prior to the $70K minimum wage, the figure was less than 1%

In another interview, Dan noted that raising salaries did not change people's motivation, his staff were already motivated. He says that it increased their capability.

When Covid-19 reared its ugly head on most companies, Gravity Payments employees deliberately took salary cuts to keep the company afloat. As the economy reopened, the company was able to pay back its employees in full.

What can we learn from Dan?

Conflict and leadership.

See, the US Army Leader's manual starts with its fundamental premise that leadership is based on the triad: Be, know, do.

Leaders know their values and their values align with their vision. You cannot say you are a leader when your employees live paycheck to paycheck while you make more than 1000 times more than the lowest paid employee.

Employees are less likely to exhibit conflict attitudes and behaviors if they feel the company cares for their welfare, not in words, but in deeds.

Dan created a win-win scenario for his company and the employees. He looked at the bigger picture of each party and realized that for his company to grow and be an industry leader, he had to take his employees with him.

How do you achieve a win-win scenario? That is the bigger question. Are you struggling to create win-win scenarios? Let’s walk the journey together.

Check out www.mbsconfictgroup for more, and also to write to us for any conflict and leadership related consulting