Don't Carve the Turkey with a Chainsaw: Resolving Family Conflict

Would You Like to Resolve Family Feuds?
• Are your teens driving you crazy?
• Do you feel like nobody really listens to you?
• Does your spouse really understand your needs?
• Could you use five strategies to manage stubborn people?
• Would you like to zap conflict in your family now?

The Conflict Whisperer says, “One style of conflict management for all situations is no more appropriate than one style of clothing for all situations. Just as you wouldn’t wear a bikini to your prom, or your wedding dress to work in the garden, your conflict resolution strategy must reflect the people and the situation engaged in the interaction. Just as you wouldn’t carve a turkey with a chainsaw, you wouldn’t cut a tree with a carving knife. You need to select the appropriate carving tool to accomplish your objectives.”

Don’t Carve the Turkey with a Chainsaw reveals and sharpens the tools to resolve family conflict.

There Is Nothing Like Parenthood to Teach Humility.

Power struggles with teens are not just about independence and hormones. There are normal neurological changes that occur that challenge most parents. Sometimes they seem insurmountable, but they are not.

Don’t Carve the Turkey with a Chainsaw is the solution that families—with or without children—can lean on to restore harmony and create closer relationships with family members.

What Will You Do?
• You believe that you do most of the work around the house. Your spouse magically disappears any time work needs to be done. You believe that the workload distribution is unfair. What will you do?
• Your child screams, “You can’t make me!” What will you do?
• Your family is gathering for the holidays. You look forward to getting reacquainted, but one person always seems to find a way to disrupt things. What will you do?

Do you talk so people will listen?

Do you listen so people will talk?

Conflict is not based on objective reality, but on the interpretations of that reality. Your response depends on how you interpret the situation, and the emotions you associate with it.

At night you may be able to see the stars clearly. But with the morning light, the stars disappear. Does that mean that the stars are no longer present? It is all a matter of perspective. Successful conflict resolution requires the ability to understand the perspective of all sides and to identify the interests of all sides.
Don’t Carve the Turkey with a Chainsaw shows you how to see a new reality in all dimensions.