Conflict management

Imagine:

You show up on a customer site. Your contact there is out sick, and his temporary replacement has no idea what was already done. He starts a shouting match that he'll have you all fired immediately, that the product is crap and that you're all incompetent. Of course, the fact that he never read the brief, or that it might have been good if he'd had at least glanced at the last status report has managed to escape him.

Now what?

There are many ways to calm down a heated debate (new speak for argument), in my case most of them involve finding a large server and accidentally dropping it on someones toes. (No, not really. I wouldn't do that to an innocent server.) However, since the way I'd resolve the argument in my daydream isn't something that seems to be socially acceptable - to say nothing of proper business behavior, some suggestions from the blog of Jay Morrissey might come in handy:

Your guide to resolving any heated argument and Fight back against verbal intimidation

Check out the rest of his site too - lots of good advice to be found! [www.jaymorrissey.com]