
Research & Evidence
Increased Trust Through Dialogue Within the Swedish Municipal Workers' Union - Lars-Ake Almqvist
Lars-Ake Almqvist
When interpersonal conflicts paralysed two teams at Sweden's largest trade union, Lars-Åke Almqvist was hired to rebuild trust. Working entirely via Zoom during COVID restrictions, he used structured dialogue methods to transform a dysfunctional office culture into collaborative partnership.
Lars-Åke Almqvist documents his intervention at Kommunal, Sweden's largest trade union, where persistent conflicts between administrative staff and ombudsmen had crippled the regional office. Working entirely via Zoom during COVID-19 restrictions, Almqvist conducted confidential individual interviews to understand the culture and dynamics, then designed separate two-day programmes for each team before bringing them together. The process employed Kantor's Four-Player Model, Johan Galtung's ABC conflict resolution framework, Susan Wheelan's team development theory, and Visual Dialogue methods. Key outcomes included new paired working arrangements between ombudsmen and administrative staff, joint planning meetings, and regular feedback practices; something notably absent in Swedish workplace culture. The paper honestly addresses a particular insight: individual interviews beforehand created trust because 'the whole group knows that I know their big problems and they can't fool me.' Published in The World Needs Dialogue! Four: Putting Dialogue to Work.
Format
Paper
Category
Research & Evidence
Topics
Dialogue in organisations and systems
Access
member
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