Examples Of How To Use CPS In The Workplace

A number of people I met with at the National Council conference in San Diego asked me for examples of how to use CPS in the workplace. They are provided below.


Step 1: Empathize with staff’s view of the situation and define the problem from their point of view. This step is complete when the manager has received explicit confirmation from staff that they have been heard.  


Here are are some examples of an opening neutral observation. Readers will be following the manger’s discussions with Mary, and Jim for the remainder of this article.

§         Mary, the next thing I’d like to talk about in supervision is an interaction we had last week. When we started talking about your sales targets for next year it seemed like you had a reaction to what I said. Could you fill me in a bit on how this conversation went for you?  <STOP. Let your staff member speak.>

§         Jim, I've noticed that you rarely drop by my office my office anymore to catch me up on what you are working on or to ask for my advice.  . <STOP. Let your staff member speak.  >

The technique of reflective listening was developed by Carl Rogers (1951, 1961), who established an evidence-based approach to counseling that was based called “person centered psychotherapy”. A core requirement of his counseling approach was for the counselor to demonstrate what he called “accurate empathy” through “reflective listening.” The examples below illustrate reflective listening in action in the context of work-related conflict.

§         Mary, I want to make sure I am understanding you correctly. What I hear you saying is that over the past two months I have been putting a lot of pressure on you to increase your sales and that my taking out the weekly sales figures to look at each time we get together is just making you anxious. It is not helping you figure out how to meet your sales targets. Is that accurate? <STOP. Listen.>

§         Jim, let me know if I’ve got this right. It seems that my promoting Bill surprised you and led to your feeling devalued and angry. You expected to be the one to move into the new position. You feel that my decision did not take into account all the hard work you have done for the department and that I play favorites. Is that a good summary of what you just said? <STOP. Listen.

Simple phrases, accompanied by eye contact and a slight lean forward, easily communicate reassurance:

§         Thanks, that’s helpful to know.

§         I’m not quite sure I’m understanding what you are saying accurately yet, so I’d like to ask you another question.

§         Ah, I think I’m beginning to understand.

§         I appreciate your restating that again for me. Thanks

Step 2: Define the problem from your point of view and wait to hear a validating response.

Here are some examples of Step 2, which build on the examples provided above.

§         Mary, my concern is that our department’s sales figures have not been meeting target for the past two quarters, yours included. I want to be helpful to you in figuring out what you can do to turn things around. During supervision I take out your sales figures so that we can monitor how our efforts are working. Having this data in front of me when I talk with my boss is useful to me and to her, but perhaps you are not finding this to be the case. <WAIT AND LISTEN FOR A VALIDATING RESPONSE.>

If the manager thought Mary could benefit from more direction, a couple of alternatives to the illustration above could have been “Is this making sense to you?” or “Could you feed back to me what you hear me saying? It is important to me to know that I have been communicating my viewpoint clearly.”

§         Jim, I am aware of all the time you put in on evenings and weekends to get the job done. I am also aware that you have been working here longer than Bill. I value your commitment to our company, our department, and to me. Deciding who this position should go to was a tough choice for me to make and I do believe you could have done the job. This was a situation where there were two qualified people and I had to chose the person I thought could do the job best at this point in time with the particular challenges we are facing today. I am concerned that the choice I made leaves you feeling devalued and that it seems to have hurt our relationship. I am used to us both feeling comfortable when we are working together. It does not feel that way to me now and that concerns me.

It would have been tempting for the manager to say, “you seem to be angry and upset” or “I am responding to your discomfort with me.” Both would be “you statements” as opposed to “I statements.” The problem with “you statements” is that they put the speaker in the position of telling the other person what he or she is feeling. The manager cannot know that. No one likes other people telling them what they are feeling. When they do that, we pull away from them and disengage from communication.

Step 3: Invite staff to work together on solving a jointly defined problem. Obtain agreement.

If a manager and staff have successfully completed the preceding steps, they are now ready to create an agreement that forms the basis for solving a problem, one that they jointly define. Step 3 is commonly initiated by a statement like this:

I think you have a good understanding of my point of view and I believe I now have a pretty good understanding of yours. We both have concerns. Yours are <restate staff members concerns> and mine are <restate the managers concerns>. How bout we put our heads together and find a solution for these concerns that works for both of us?

Note: stating the last sentence in the form of a question provides staff an opportunity to let the manager know whether or not they feel that they are ready to begin problem solving. Alternative wording, using the examples from above would be:

§         Mary, it seems that you and I view these reviews of your sales numbers quite differently. I would suggest we see if there isn’t some way to modify what we are currently doing, or find another way altogether to get to the same end goal of improving sales. Shall we do that?

§         Jim, it seems we have some repair work to do here. Do you agree?

Step 4: Negotiation And Problem Solving

There is not a stepwise road map to follow for this phase of CPS. Phase 2 does not lend itself to that kind of approach. The process is more circular than linear. The variations are endless. However, there are some general principles for you to follow.

1. Base your negotiation and problem solving activities on the specifics learned during Phase One.
2. Create an opportunity for your staff and/or you to develop or enhance interpersonal and other skills. Brainstorming potential solutions together represents a learning opportunity for both of you.
3. The solution should provide an opportunity for incremental learning. We generally learn new skills best when they are broken into bite size pieces.
4. Keep your solution(s) in your back pocket. Give your staff the first opportunity to propose a solution. Ideally,  the solution will be one that is arrived at collaboratively and does not “belong” to either individual.
5. Resist turning negotiation and problem solving into a process of determining who is at fault. The natural tendency in such dialogues is to drift towards assigning blame. Neither you nor your staff are immune from this tendency.
6. To the extent it is possible, frame your discussion of the problem at hand in such a way that the solutions you both arrive at and the problem solving skills your staff develops can be generalized to other situations.

Here are some examples of how negotiation and problem solving might go following these principles. The dialogue picks up where it left off, above. The manager has proposed

Mary: Yes, I’m really worn out by what we’ve been doing. I dread supervision and our endless discussion of my sales figures. To tell you the truth, I’ve been thinking about working somewhere else and have updated my resume. I’d rather not leave if I don’t have to. Until my sales took a nose dive, I liked working here and I liked working with you.

Manager: Then lets see if we can find an approach that is helpful to you. I want you to succeed. I’ve heard your concerns about the pressure you feel  from our weekly review of sales figures and you have heard my concerns about meeting our sales targets. What are your thoughts about how we can solve our dilemma?

Mary: Isn’t that your job to figure out?

Manager: No. It’s our job.

Mary: <Silence>

Manager: <Silence>

Mary: Hmmm. Well, maybe if I got the most recent sales figure before I came to supervision that would be helpful.

Manager: Sure, you could review them before hand. There would be no surprises. I like it,

Mary: And I could do my own analysis ahead of time. I wouldn’t be forced to have an instant answer about how I’m going to get everything fixed.

Manager: If I got the report to you at least two days before our weekly meeting would that work for you?

Mary: Yes.

Manager: And would it work even better for you if we met every other week rather than weekly? I do feel a need to stay on top of this situation, but perhaps I’m making matters worse by meeting with you so often.

Mary: That would be a lot better. Thanks. I had been thinking about that, but thought you’d never go for it. This is a pleasant surprise.

Jim: I’ve been in this position now for four years. The one that you just gave to Bill is the only one I saw as an opportunity for advancement. My wife is in a dead-end job too and we’ve got a second kid coming in March.

Manager: So, I’m hearing that in addition to your feeling devalued by my hiring choice, you’re feeling a lot of pressure to be earning more.

Jim: Yeah, that’s for sure.

Manager: That helps me understand the tension I’m feeling between us. Are you wanting to work on this together or are you thinking that working elsewhere might be a better option for you?

Jim: I’ve thought about that, but I’d rather have this job work out. I basically like working here.

Manager: You like working here, but need to see a path to advancement and increased earning. I had a tough choice to make and made it; I had no intent to devalue your work, though I understand how it felt that way to you.  Should we put our heads together and see what ideas we can come up with that address both of our concerns?

Jim: Hmmmm. I guess so.

Manager: What are you thinking might helpful?

Jim: I need to see a way for me to be making more money. Maybe in the short run it doesn’t have to be a new position. Is there some other way?

Manager: It occurs to me that there might an opportunity for you to do some special projects that are outside the scope of your current position. They could be done on weekends if you are open to that. But come to think of it, we have not reviewed your job description in quite awhile. It seems to me that there is a disconnect between your current level of responsibilities and what your job description says. If that is the case, company policy allows me to adjust your salary. If either of these approaches is possible, does it sound like a solution to you? Would you be feeling differently about working with me?

Jim: Yes and yes. Thanks.

Step 5: Trouble Shooting

When a manager is running into problems with Plan B, there are a number of common errors to consider as their cause. You think you are doing Plan B, but you are really doing Plan A. It is easy to dress up a Plan A approach to look like Plan B. Acting from a position of authority can be done quite subtly, so subtly that managers trick themselves into thinking they have worked the steps of Plan B, particularly the step that involves empathizing with their staff’s view of the situation. Perfunctory empathy is a common mistake, one that leads to a breakdown of the process. When staff have not been heard they simply will not engage in the other steps of Plan B.

Missing Steps or doing the Steps out of order are two additional common mistakes. Some of the scenarios presented above illustrate these problems in action. What managers do when they have figured this out is simple, they go back and work the steps again, this time in the right order.

When managers realizes that they have done the Steps out of order or missed a Steps, it is generally not a good idea to switch to Plan C. However, doing so should not be ruled out entirely. The following are criteria, all of which must be met, for switching to Plan C.

§         The conflict is not significant

§         It would be a lot of work to go back and redo the steps of Plan B

§         The manager has generated some good will through what has been done thus far to resolve the conflict

§         The manager can clearly state a rationale to staff for dropping the issue

§         The issue is not swept under the rug. Before it is dropped, the issue is clearly stated.

§         Staff agrees to dropping the issue for now

§         Dropping the issue does not penalize staff

Another common mistake in executing Plan B is the manager putting solutions on the table instead of concerns during Step 3. Many managers are apt to rush to solutions before hearing the concerns of others or stating their own. Managers are generally good problem solvers and this ability has a seductive tendency to lure managers of both sexes to get to the “good part” quickly. This will backfire. Managers can’t rush the process and expect to succeed. Managers need to be aware that difficult problems will likely require more than one discussion and that the complete Plan B process does not need to be completed in a single sitting. Finally, managers should realize that despite the best laid plans of Plan B, it is frequently an adventure. If the manager does a good job of empathic listening and detective work, additional concerns and issues may surface which may require more immediate attention than what the manager intended to discuss.

When Plan B is not working, the manager should also consider a number of personal factors that are independent of the manager’s execution of Plan B. It could be that either the manager or staff are under severe stress. Perhaps the manager is working with a staff member who is more comfortable with a Plan A approach than a Plan B approach. It is essential for managers to adapt their approach to the individual they are working with.