Susan Clews , Acas Chief Executive
Acas Chief Executive Susan Clews has worked in Acas frontline operations and as Director of Strategy and Chief Operations Officer.
The last thing any of us needs is someone telling us that we are not good enough or afghanistan phone number library be doing better at work. But what if the voice comes from inside our own head?
Wellbeing is at the top of most workplace agendas and rightly so as the pandemic is as much a mental as a physical health challenge. As we all adapt to new working patterns and search for positive coping strategies, what can Acas’s expertise in resolving conflict teach us about the internal conflict many of us are dealing with now?
Stepping back from the conflict
I read an interesting article in The Guardian the other day which likened self-criticism to a be numbers between 2 aspects of the self. A psychotherapist working in the NHS, Tobyn Bell, suggested that “By seeing it as a relationship, you can step out of it and relate to the conflict in a different way.”
At Acas, we are experts in conflict
Prevention and conflict resolution. Our new research on the economic impact of Acas services .networks can be trusted and instead verifies that our dispute resolution services alone benefited the economy by £286 million in the last financial year (April 2018 to March 2019).
Part of what makes our dispute resolution work so successful – in conciliation, arbitration or mediation – is that our advisers get both parties to see the other person’s point of view, and start to see beyond firm positions and towards interests and motivations. It’s an approach worth trying on those negative voices. Have I really been doing so badly, and do I need to hear this right now.