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Conflict is the richest material an organization has. Most organizations throw it away.
The Compost Method™
Why Compost?
A compost pile is not a mess. It is a system for turning what looks like waste into the thing that makes everything else grow.
Conflict works the same way. The disagreement your team has been avoiding for eight months contains more honest information about how your organization actually functions than any engagement survey you will ever run. Most organizations bury it, route around it, or wait for someone to quit.
The Compost Method™ is my five-move process for using it instead.
The Five Moves
They happen in order, and the order matters.
01. Notice
Catching it while it is still small.
In practice: naming the pattern before anyone files a complaint.
02. Gather
Collecting every perspective, including the inconvenient ones.
In practice: confidential one-on-one conversations with everyone involved.
03. Turn
Bringing buried material up where air can reach it.
In practice: structured mediation sessions, two hours each.
04. Feed
Putting what you learned back into the organization.
In practice: written agreements and concrete commitments people can hold each other to.
05. Rest
Letting it settle. Rushed repair does not hold.
In practice: a 30-day follow-up before anyone declares it finished.
Then it starts again.
A pile is never finished.
How Long It Takes
Composting is slow, and so is this. A mediation engagement runs four to six weeks from the first conversation to follow-up.
Most of that time is Gather and Turn. Those are the moves people want to skip, and they are the moves that decide whether anything holds.