#CancelCulture is killing conflict resolution.
For the last five or so years, our society has adopted a mindset of cutting out, or canceling, people who have committed an indiscretion, said something inappropriate, had differing opinions, or simply hurt our feelings. Even if the indiscretion is many years old, we are prone to pounce, deleting people from our lives quicker than we can tweet out the news. While accountability towards morally wrong actions is appropriate, where is the reconciliation? How can someone who makes a mistake be brought back into the fold in a healthy way? We are quick to dismiss but slow to reconcile. In the era of #CancelCulture, we are creating a generation of people unwilling and unable to reconcile broken relationships.
This should be alarming for leaders in the workplace. Conflicts in the workplace are already costing US businesses a staggering amount each year. According to a study conducted by Consulting Psychology Press, Inc., workers spend approximately 2.8 hours of work every week dealing with conflict. From a cost standpoint, this equates to around $359 BILLION a year in lost productivity. Now, what happens to this cost when the #CancelCulture generation takes over the workplace? Without the ability to resolve conflict in a healthy way, we could start to see:
- Increased workplace stress
- Increased employee turnover
- Increased employee absenteeism from
- Decreased employee engagement
- Deceased productivity
You aren’t helpless, however. #CancelCulture isn’t a death sentence for your workplace. There are four things leaders can do to restore healthy conflict resolution in the workplace: