Workplace Conflict Resolution: Samuel Devyver of EasyLlama On How Team Leaders Can Create The Right Environment To Resolve Conflicts
An Interview With Eric Pines
Emotional intelligence is the next level of empathy, and some of its key signs include an understanding of personal strengths and limitations, as well as self-confidence and self-acceptance. To that end, we make it a point at EasyLlama to celebrate both small and big achievements. To avoid low morale, we like to break larger goals into smaller ones and track progress to give the team the opportunity to celebrate success more often. And when a team feels appreciated you will likely see an increase in not just morale, but engagement and retention as well.
An important component of leadership is conflict resolution. Why is conflict resolution so important? How can leaders effectively incorporate conflict resolution into their work culture? In this interview series called “Workplace Conflict Resolution: How Team Leaders Can Create The Right Environment To Resolve Conflicts,” we are talking to business leaders who can share insights and anecdotes from their experience about how to implement Conflict Resolution at work. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Samuel Devyver, Co-founder & CEO of EasyLlama.
Samuel Devyver is the Co-founder and CEO of EasyLlama, passionate about creating inclusive workplaces through innovative training, and is an overall SaaS Swiss army knife, with experience as a three-time tech founder. He is a proud graduate of the Y Combinator, an exclusive 3-month technology startup accelerator program, alongside his brother and EasyLlama Co-founder/CTO Michaël Devyver. He currently resides in the Bay Area with his wife and children.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
My brother Michaël (our CTO) and I were driven to launch EasyLlama in 2019 due to our desire to provide businesses with effective and enjoyable workplace training. As we came from outside of the training/HR compliance sector, we were able to approach our business and the HR field with fresh eyes to have a significant impact. We wanted to create courses that focused on harassment and discrimination prevention, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), data privacy and cybersecurity, workplace safety, and ethical practices. EasyLlama’s mission is to make courses of the highest quality, that would differ from the standard ineffective and cheesy workplace training. As of May 2023, EasyLlama provides training to over 6,500 companies and more than 1 million end users.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
One of the most interesting career steps we’ve taken that I’m also extremely proud of is our acceptance to the exclusive 3-month Y Combinator program for technology startups. Their training was so beneficial to Michaël and me as we ideated a few different start-ups, but EasyLlama eventually became our primary focus. This partnership also came full circle for us as Y Combinator is now one of our clients, providing EasyLlama training to thousands of their employees on a regular basis.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
At Y Combinator they say, “Find a 10x,” which is a concept for identifying a product or service that you can improve ten times over your competition. This means that you must research and comprehend the market well enough to develop a better solution that customers would value over others. We knew that we could “Find a 10x” by reinventing the often outdated workplace training model, and as a company, we continue to use the “Find a 10x” approach when brainstorming new ideas for our product and strategizing ways to make an impact with our customers.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
You’ve taken cheesy and outdated compliance training, right? Most everyone has. EasyLlama is doing things differently with an online course platform that was custom designed by our CTO, Michaël. Our training experience and course library have grown immensely over the past several years, with continuous updates and aesthetic improvements. We particularly like the flexibility that creating our own software has given us, including the ease with which we can modify courses for new legal requirements or customer preferences, as well as the edge it gives us over competitors who employ a standard LMS. Client feature requests are added to our product roadmap for future development, and owning our own software also allows us to release features quickly. On a number of sites, including G2 and SHRM, our customers have given our dashboard and platform five stars. We are constantly upgrading, but overall we are quite happy with it.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
I think three character traits that have been instrumental to EasyLlama’s success are innovation, motivation, and confidence. Because we had personally used out-of-date training programs, Michaël and I decided to innovate and launch our next start-up in the workplace training sector. We wanted to be on the cutting edge of the HR field by identifying a niche and developing a solution to do things better, unlike some founders who are looking for a whole new product.
I remember the motivation that I’ve had to have as a business leader when I think about how EasyLlama started with nothing more than a landing page and Google ads. We established lofty goals and spent a lot of time developing new courses because we knew there were people interested in innovative and inclusive workplace training solutions. Today, we are happy to be expanding quickly with a great margin of profit.
Finally, as a business leader, you must have confidence in yourself and in your product. I believe that you can’t know whether you’re successful until your clients tell you. Although we have always been confident in our product, it is satisfying to have created something that the market recognizes as a success, with a customer satisfaction score of over 90%.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?
A hard decision that we had to make early on for EasyLlama was the type of compliance training courses that we wanted to create first. Compliance is very extensive in the U.S. and some of those topics can also be pretty specific to certain industries (like HIPAA training for example) so when we launched we had to take a bet on which path we should prioritize. Either a broadly-focused course or industry-specific training could have been effective, but we ultimately chose to prioritize the quality of a harassment and discrimination prevention course that would appeal to our largest audience in the field of HR. Since then, we have also added industry-specific courses not just in harassment prevention and other compliance topics to really expand our library to 165+ courses.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s start with a basic definition so that all of us are on the same page. What does Conflict Resolution mean?
Conflict resolution is a process that two or more people use to find a peaceful solution to a dispute or disagreement. This process can either be formal or informal, depending on the circumstances. Effective communication is the key to resolving conflicts. There is a higher likelihood of misunderstandings and conflicts whenever there is poor communication.
What are some common misunderstandings about Conflict Resolution that are important to clear up?
Some may believe that every conflict has a “winner” and a “loser.” But in most cases, leaders are striving for a win-win situation, where everyone gets something that they want. Collaborations like this are especially helpful when it is vital to preserve the relationships involved or when the decision will have a major impact on the organization. Conflict resolution also does not always require an immediate solution; in some cases, a leader can wait to deal with the conflict by waiting to address the issue or moving people out of situations to allow for a cooling-off period, which can be effective until the issue can be dealt with fully.
This might be intuitive to you, but it will be helpful to clearly express this. Can you please explain why it is so important for leaders to learn and deploy conflict resolution techniques?
Resolving conflicts in a healthy and productive way can improve relationships between coworkers and create a more positive work environment. Conflicts can often lead to better decision-making as different perspectives are considered and discussed. I have successfully used a few different conflict management styles and realized that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to resolving problems. Each situation is unique in its own way and how you resolve it will depend on many factors, which is why it is important to learn a number of different techniques. A workplace that is able to resolve conflicts and improve communication effectively can positively impact the company’s reputation and attract top talent.
On the flip side, what happens to a work culture when there is not an effective way of resolving conflict? How does it impact employees?
Without proper conflict resolution, companies may see rising tensions that prevent any real work from being done. By resolving conflicts in a constructive manner that benefits everyone, a work culture will be one of positivity and respect, rather than an “every person for themselves” mentality. Conflict resolution techniques can affect not just employees, but the leaders using them as well. In fact, according to global consulting firm DDI, we’ve seen that leaders who listen and respond with empathy perform 40% better in coaching, planning, and decision-making.
Can you provide examples of how effective conflict resolution has led to increased team performance, collaboration, or innovation within your organization?
At EasyLlama, we are a people-first organization, which really defines how we deal with conflict among employees. We strive to build a foundation of trust, accountability, and transparency between direct reports and managers, as well as employees and the organization. As a remote team, we know that our employees highly value their flexibility and work-life balance. I think we head off a lot of conflicts by making it a point to not constantly check up on how much time our employees work, instead trusting them to get their tasks done while remaining available to coworkers and managers on a regular basis. We fully believe that trust is the only way remote teams can actually work well, and have seen high performance from our employees as a result.
We also conduct weekly 1:1s between managers and direct reports, as well as quarterly anonymous employee surveys to get a pulse on how our team is feeling about their job and the company at large. Both of these tactics provide employees and managers with frequent chances to collaborate, directly or anonymously communicate, and address any points of conflict. Most recently, we also hosted our second annual in-person retreat, which provided an incredible opportunity to collaborate and innovate together. Without that basis of trust built remotely, I don’t think we would have seen the level of closeness and collaboration among teammates who had never even met before in person.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Ways Every Team Leader Can Create The Right Environment To Resolve Conflicts”? If you can, please share specific examples of a workplace conflict you’ve encountered, and how you applied conflict resolution techniques to address it.
1. Active Listening:
Active listening is a method of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding. When you actively listen, you engage your brain and senses to hear, understand, and retain what someone has to say. I have frequent Zoom meetings every day, but when I make a conscious effort to actively listen to the person I’m speaking with, particularly related to conflicts with a coworker or client, I can see the benefits of maintaining a positive attitude and going beyond to understand and not “just hear” their words.
2. Communication:
Difficult situations inevitably arise in every workplace, but the bigger question is how we handle them. One of the top pieces of advice that I can offer fellow business leaders is to understand and communicate the issue in as much detail as possible. I like to think of these three questions: 1. What happened or is happening? 2. What decisions have been made? 3. What is the plan moving forward? As we answer these questions, it becomes easier to address the issue and identify a plan to solve it.
3. Transparency:
I have found that EasyLlama has benefited from a model of transparency, which naturally occurred even in our early days and is demonstrated with a top-down approach. I strongly believe in the idea of managers discussing performance and growth on a regular basis, and our People Ops team is dedicated to making sure that feedback is given through multiple pathways. Even when mistakes are made, I am open about it and take responsibility for individual and organizational errors.
4. Emotional Intelligence:
Emotional intelligence is the next level of empathy, and some of its key signs include an understanding of personal strengths and limitations, as well as self-confidence and self-acceptance. To that end, we make it a point at EasyLlama to celebrate both small and big achievements. To avoid low morale, we like to break larger goals into smaller ones and track progress to give the team the opportunity to celebrate success more often. And when a team feels appreciated you will likely see an increase in not just morale, but engagement and retention as well.
5. Trust:
There are a few different styles of leadership, with the main two being Transactional and Transformational. Transactional leadership is centered on order and keeping the status quo, with reinforcement and rewards based on performance. Transformational leadership, on the other hand, requires leaders to “trust the process” and be comfortable with change. At EasyLlama, we see many benefits from a transformational leadership style, where I work with teams to recognize areas for innovation, motivate team members to work toward their own career growth, and trust them to manage and complete their tasks for the good of our organization. Although this style takes a major time commitment, it results in team members developing a deep sense of loyalty, trust, and admiration for our leadership team and the company as a whole.
In your experience, what are the most common sources of conflict within a team, and how do you proactively address these potential issues before they escalate?
Figuring out the conflict and its source is the first and most significant step to fixing the problem and finding an equitable solution for all involved. Some of the most common causes of workplace conflicts include poor communication, differences in perspectives and values, competition for limited resources or recognition, personal issues (such as stress or clashes of personalities), differences in work styles, power imbalances that can create resentment, and changes in the workplace, such as re-organization or revised policies. By recognizing and addressing these sources of conflict, teams can work together more effectively and build stronger relationships. Robust conflict resolution and communication skills are key to resolving conflicts and creating a healthy work environment.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could create a movement that would bring about the most good for the most people, it would be to make sure that businesses are taking steps to create safe, inclusive, and equitable workplaces for all employees. Unfortunately, discrimination and harassment still occur in many workplaces, and too often go unnoticed or ignored. EasyLlama has proven to be an effective tool in helping to modify employee behavior and increase understanding of harassment prevention. We hope that our program can inspire other businesses to do the same and put an end to discrimination and harassment in the workplace, as we continue to innovate in the workplace training sector.
How can our readers further follow you online?
You can learn more about EasyLlama at easyllama.com, where you can also find articles and resources addressing leadership skills, conflict resolution techniques, and more. We also have a number of courses applicable to this topic, including:
https://www.easyllama.com/courses/conflict-resolution-and-communication/
https://www.easyllama.com/courses/leadership-training/
https://www.easyllama.com/mini-courses/empathy-and-emotional-intelligence-for-leaders/
https://www.easyllama.com/mini-courses/active-listening-skills/
You can also follow EasyLlama on social media.
https://twitter.com/Easy_Llama
https://www.facebook.com/easyllamatraining/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/easyllama
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
Workplace Conflict Resolution: Samuel Devyver of EasyLlama On How Team Leaders Can Create The Right… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.