Don’t Get Mad at Penguins

Book excerpt: While most people view conflict as a bad thing that should be avoided at all costs, the reality is that embracing conflict in a healthy way is the single greatest factor in driving success and avoiding painful failure. Don’t Get Mad at Penguins breaks down the factors that escalate conflict to dangerous heights and shows us how to defuse conflict and make it work for us rather than against us. Just as toxins in our bodies make us unhealthy, slow us down, and cause us pain, the same holds true for toxins in our organizations and minds. They cause healthy conflict to become destructive, which then consumes an organization’s energy and taxes its ability to compete, grow, and prosper. Team engagements become pained, client relationships are strained, and individual careers suffer. The same unhealthy, painful dynamics play out in our personal lives as well. The key to making conflict work for our benefit lies in removing toxins from our interactions, and Don’t Get Mad at Penguins offers simple yet powerfully effective tools to do just that.