Managing difficult conversations at work; ambulances, snow ploughs and submarines

Posted by Peter van der Graaf, AskFuse Research Manager / Fuse Knowledge Exchange Broker, Teesside University

We all face difficult conversations in our work; whether as a PhD student trying to tell a supervisor that they are not very helpful, or as post-doctoral researcher, explaining to your line manager that you really don’t want to take up any more teaching responsibilities. Or even as a practitioner having to point out to an esteemed researcher that their pet project is not relevant at all for your practice.

Like most people, I try to avoid these conversations as much as I can and prefer ‘flight’ rather than ‘fight’. Best to give in and avoid confrontation than have an uncomfortable row that will keep me up at night.

But could confrontations also be useful, and if so, how could you manage them in a way that they benefit you? This was the aim of the Courageous and Compelling Conversations Masterclass I attended in London as part of the NIHR Leadership Development Programme. Before starting the masterclass, I had to complete a self-assessment of my preferred response mode to confrontational conversations, which neatly confirmed my ‘flight’ status and gave me new labels for it: 60% Give In; 20% Run Away; and 20% Compromise.

What the masterclass taught me was that confrontation is not about preparing well for the other’s potential responses; for instance, by endlessly scripting clever and rational dialogues to counteract every accusation that a person could throw at me.

Instead, the course focused on better understanding my own response style in relation to other people. My light bulb moment was the realisation that you can’t control the response of the person you are talking to, but that you can manage yourself on how to respond, and take time to formulate this response during the conversation. Therefore, my nights (more preferably work hours) would be better spent understanding what I want to get out of the confrontation (outcome) and plan my conversations accordingly, instead of worrying what the other person will say and need.

During the course we were split into three groups, according to our preferred Motivation Value Style, with each group given its own emblem in the shape of a transport vehicle. Apparently, I am an ambulance, which is the symbol of the ‘carer’ group, who are motivated by the protection, growth and welfare of others. We prefer to ensure that everyone is happy, relationships are good and don’t want to be a burden to others. As an ambulance, I am responsive to other people’s needs and therefore go into conversations where I am needed (with blue lights if possible!).

In contrast, the ‘driver’ group (snow ploughs) - motivated by task accomplishment and achieving results - prefer to exercise persuasion. The third group, technicians (submarines) are different again in that they are motivated by meaningful order and thinking things through; they want to be practical and fair.

Although, these three styles feel quite stereotypical, I was surprised to see how much each of us on the course was conforming to these styles when explaining their behaviour in difficult conversations. We discovered that we incorporate elements of each style into our conversations but have a natural gravitas to a particular style. Realising your preferred style and working out the preferred style of your conversation partner, proved really helpful.

For example, someone who prefers to be a submarine (technician style), does not respond well to pressure to make an on the spot decision. Forcing them to agree to a solution at the end of the conversation will only escalate the confrontation. Instead, agreeing to give them time to mull the problem over and come back with a response later, will likely result in a much more favourable response and implementable solution.

Under stress, people tend to respond in either of two ways: they become more extreme in their preferred style (dig their heels in) or switch to a different style. What we were encouraged to do during the training course, was to play with different styles and practice switching during a confrontational conversation to a different style that would be more attuned to the person we were speaking to. In that sense, we are better able to manage ourselves and the responses we get from the person we are confronting.

A key part of this switching of styles was being assertive; not shouting over the other or ignoring what they say, but quite the opposite: taking more time to listen to the other and trying to understand what they say and where they are coming from. Are we really hearing what the other person is telling us or are we too busy trying to contain our emotions and constructing our next argument in our heads? Armed with this understanding, you will be better prepared to say what you think and feel, and, most importantly, what you want to happen.

As an ambulance, I need to be patient with submarines and focus on the practical, while being more competitive and assertive with snow ploughs, or team up with submarines to create new opportunities in joint conversation with snow ploughs.


Image:

1. 'Arguments' by Jeff Eaton via Flickr. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffeaton/7436909698

Take it away: a masterclass in healthy takeaways

Post by Scott Lloyd, Advanced Public Health Practitioner at Public Health South Tees and Karen Pearson, Catering Monitoring & Advisory Officer at Redcar & Cleveland Council

Whether it is the Golden Cod or the Taste of India, independent hot food takeaways get a bad rap in Public Health circles. They serve food and drink that is predominantly higher in fat, salt and sugar and may contribute to noise pollution and other environmental ills. Furthermore, they may not be the best option for our beleaguered high streets as they tend to be shuttered up during the daytime.

Up to March 2018, for a variety of reasons (including health), 164 out of 325 Local Authorities (50.5%) have introduced powers through Local Plans or Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD) that aim to restrict the proliferation of hot food takeaways (Keeble et al. 2019)[1].

Watch this video to find out more about how we worked with takeaway owners
(click here if the video doesn't appear above)

But let’s be honest – that horse has already bolted. Analysis by Public Health England has shown that there is an average of 96.1 hot food takeaways per 100,000 population in England (Public Health England, 2018)[2].

Where we work in Redcar and Cleveland, the Local Authority introduced a SPD in 2008 that restricted the percentage of hot food takeaways (A5 class use in planning terminology) in any commercial centre to no more than 5% - but even then, each commercial centre already had more than 5% hot food takeaways.

So we have to accept that hot food takeaways are here to stay – at least for the foreseeable future. Many Local Authorities have implemented interventions such as award schemes that engage these businesses to support them to improve the healthiness of their food offerings, but with limited evaluation (Hillier-Brown et al. 2017)[3]. Indeed, we have a Food4Health award in Redcar and Cleveland, which is open to all out-of-home caterers. We were doing OK in engaging hot food takeaways but we wanted to try something different.

In 2015, the Foodscape team organised a Fuse Quarterly Research Meeting on developing interventions with out-of-home caterers. One of the presentations was by Louise Muhammad from Kirklees Council on the healthy takeaway masterclass that they had developed and delivered to over 20% of the eligible businesses on their patch. The masterclass was described as a three-hour session in which hot food takeaway owners and managers learn about the small, sustainable changes they can make so their food is a little healthier without costing a huge amount or that will actually save them money/generate new custom.

A few months later, we travelled down to Huddersfield to watch a masterclass being delivered. It was clear from the start that this was something that engaged businesses and had potential. The decision to repeat it in Redcar and Cleveland was easy.

Takeaway owners and managers learning about small changes to make their food healthier

We worked with the teams from Kirklees and Foodscape to deliver our first masterclass in May 2016. In line with what Kirklees do, we invited hot food takeaways with a food hygiene rating of three or above – the feeling was that any outlets with less than this really needed to concentrate on food hygiene first. In total, 181 invitations were sent out and 18 attended, representing 10% of those eligible – a figure that we practitioners were happy with (if not all the academics!).

The Foodscape team conducted a mixed methods evaluation to explore the acceptability and feasibility of the masterclass intervention (Hillier-Brown et al. 2019)[4]. The takeaways businesses that attended made a variety of pledges – the ones that required less effort and cost (e.g. reducing salt and sugar in pizza dough) were implemented more so than other more potentially costly or difficult changes (e.g. stocking reduced sugar tomato ketchup).

Pledging to use healthier alternatives

Has this work made the hot food takeaways in Redcar and Cleveland healthy? No it hasn’t. Like the rest of us, businesses owners have a living to make and will cater to what their customers want. But as an example, Carol - the owner of a sandwich shop in Guisborough who stars in the film above - pledged to take 10% of the sugar out of her baking. Did her customers notice? No. Did, this make her flapjacks ‘healthy’? Of course not but they are now a little healthier. Hence, has the masterclass via all the pledges made their food offerings a little healthier? Probably.

We have since delivered a further six masterclasses, with the offer extended to other out-of-home caterers such as restaurants. About 30% of all eligible takeaways in Redcar and Cleveland have now attended a masterclass, with follow up support provided by the Food4Health award.

Engaging with hot food takeaways can be difficult. We are now struggling to attract new businesses onto the masterclass and may hit a saturation point at 35% or 40% of those who are eligible. Some owners have other priorities and some may not accept the healthy eating messages. Also, some hot food takeaway owners are not even resident to the UK so engaging them is nigh on impossible. But we have to continue to try.

Another key learning point is that we need to work more closely with suppliers. The majority of masterclass attendees pledged to start using healthier alternatives, such as reduced sugar tomato ketchup or reduced salt soy sauce but they were unable to source these items from suppliers at a reasonable cost or not at all. Hence, wider work is needed with suppliers which, as one of the other Foodscape projects showed, is possible (Goffe et al. 2019)[5].

But the masterclass is an acceptable and feasible intervention to engage a good proportion of hot food takeaways. We will continue to deliver it once or twice a year as long as there is sufficient demand. We’re hoping to run the next class in September, so lookout for that.

What the masterclass doesn’t do is engage the big operators such as McDonald’s and Just Eat, accepting that the latter works mainly through local independent takeaways (but what requirements can the national corporation specify on their local deliverers?). It’s likely that national work is needed with those corporations, continuing the good work of Public Health England and others.

We also need to be mindful of the potential impact of “dark kitchens” – potentially the “satanic mills of our era”. But I’ll save that for another time…


Read our handy Fuse research brief to find out more about the Foodscape study.


References:

1. Keeble, M., Burgoine, T., White, M., Summerbell., C., Cummins. S., Adams, J. (2019). How does local government use the planning system to regulate hot food takeaway outlets? A census of current practice in England using document review. Health & Place, 57, 171 – 178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2019.03.010
2. Public Health England (2018). Fast Food Outlets: Density by Local Authority in England. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fast-food-outlets-density-by-local-authority-in-england [accessed 27 May 2019] 
3. Hillier-Brown, F.C., Summerbell C.D., Moore, H.J., Wrieden, W.L., Adams, J., Abraham, C., Adamson, A., Araújo-Soares, V., White, M., Lake, A.A. (2017). A description of interventions promoting healthier ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away, or to be delivered) sold by specific food outlets in England: a systematic mapping and evidence synthesis. BMC Public Health, 17 (1), 93. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3980-2
4. Hillier-Brown, F. C., Lloyd, S., Muhammad, L., Goffe, L., Summerbell, C., Hildred, N. J., ... Araújo-Soares, V. (2019). Feasibility and acceptability of a Takeaway Masterclass aimed at encouraging healthier cooking practices and menu options in takeaway food outlets. Public Health Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980019000648
5. Goffe, L. Hillier-Brown, F., Hildred, N., Worsnop, M., Adams, J., Araújo-Soares, V., Penn, L., Wrieden, W., Summerbell, C.D., Lake, A.A., White, M., Adamson, A.J. (2019). Feasibility of working with a wholesale supplier to co-design and test acceptability of an intervention to promote smaller portions: an uncontrolled before-and-after study in British Fish & Chip shops. BMJ Open, 9 (2), e023441. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023441