Conflict Management - How To? Any Training From You ?
Q: Conflict Management - how to? any training from you ?
I wonder if the members can help me with
a group
problem which I am involved in as an outside facilitator.
THE GROUP is an eight-member Student Council at a University;
THE PROBLEM is that there are personality clashes and various other types of con
flicts between
the members (this is inevitable at this time of year, but this is one of the wor
se cases);
THE SETTING is a weekend away (2/3 March 1996) which they have all agreed to go
on to discuss
these differences in order to come up with a better working relationship.
While I hope that some of the solutions which will emerge will include running a
role-definition intervention, setting more concrete goals, etc, I am interested
in how you
would suggest I run the initial "group therapy session" in order to manage the c
onflict
positively.
A:-I usually recommned that participants not discuss differences since this
will only rehash the past. I use a process by which I future the successful
group interactions. For example, it is 2 months in the future, you all have
been very successful in what you do as a team, what does that successful
team look like? How are you interacting? How do you communicate? How do
you address conflicts? What do the members of the team say about the team? etc.
This allows the group to focus on the future instead of the past. In
addition, it allows the group to see that, for the most part, they have
common ideas about the future of the team. BTW, if you also ask the team to
identify what it looks like to successfully complete the charter of the
council, you might also be able to get everyone to agree the direction of
the council. Follow that up with a question about what the group absolutely
needs to do to reach the success defined (critical success factors), and you
will move the group towards action and a future/solution focus. I then use
the Innovator group decision support system to prioritize the issues.
-Just wondering what your desired outcome is for the weekend?
My ideas are from the outcome perspective of building communications skills
to use conflict to reach positive results.
Our approach would be to first have people understand the conflict handling
modes. We use Thomas Kilman Conflict Mode. With this foundation, then focus
on each participant's communication style in achieving a balance between
their personal position and the organizations goals. The other important
piece is to create an understanding of the other person's position. We use
a variety of self-directed learning instruments for these 2 parts. Usually
with some "ahas" at these 2 junctures this is a natural lead in for the how
to's of demonstrating understanding using basic communication principles --
listening, feedback, etc. Getting people involved with practice and
feedback throughout the process is about 70% of it for us.
-My experience with students, being one myself at the moment, is that a
little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Having learned things that open up
new worlds, many student believe that they actually know something, and
act as if their new knowledge is ultimate truth. (a bit of an
exageration, but you get the idea i hope.) So conflict can arise as
people defend their hard won knowledge of what is right or wrong, or even
what the truth is on any given issue.
i am currently attempting to use a form of dialogue to help uncover how
our assumptions about reality tend to