Make Your Enemies Your Allies

01/25/2017

Make Your Enemies Your Allies

A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.
C.S. Lewis, Author, 1898–1963

"Rivalries in the workforce can be destructive to both personal and career growth and group success," write Brian Uzzi and Shannon Dunlap in the Harvard Business Review article, "Make Your Enemies Your Allies."

"Many attempts to reverse rivalries fail because of the complex way emotion and reason operate in the building of trust. Using a method called the 3Rs, an effective leader can turn a rival into a collaborator, setting the stage for a healthy work life while driving fresh thinking within the organization..."

Step 1 – Redirection – "shifting a rival’s negative emotions away from the adversarial relationship."

Step 2 – Reciprocity – establishing a relationship. "Here, the essential principle is to give before you ask – offering a rival something of clear benefit and priming the pump for a future return that requires little effort on the rival’s part."

Step 3 – Rationality – "setting expectations of the new relationship so that efforts made using the previous steps don’t come off as disingenuous. A rival is encouraged to see collaborative opportunities from a reasoned standpoint."

COR Advantage is an evidence-based, authentic, ongoing, birth to kindergarten child assessment tool by HighScope.

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.