Conflict Resolution


Conflict Resolution


First, view the video below. Then use your blog to describe an example of a successful conflict resolution that you have either witnessed or participated in. 

·        What was the conflict?

·        What role did you play?

·        Who were the other participants in the negotiation?

·        Knowing what you know now, how might you have changed your actions or improved the solution?

The best example of conflict resolution that I was a participant of was a work-related process issue between two different departments.  The issue revolved around a longstanding stalemate about instructions in a process manual between the flight training group and the fight standards group.  The instructions directed how flight instructors were to receive specialty training and how the records would reflect this training being accomplished. 

Although the process manual was the property of the flight training group, it was out of date and needed revising to properly reflect the specialty training that was actually occurring.  However, they were not interested in editing the manuals and thought it was a waste of time to do so, while the flight standards group was auditing flight trainings performance against their process manual.  Further exasperating was the fact that a rash of errors were found in the instructor training records due to the lack of oversight and control by the flight training department. 

Although I was a relative newcomer to the company, my work statement was directly impacted by this specialty training and the availability of flight instructors for customer training.  Seeing how both groups were pretty determined not to initiate action, I took it upon myself to liaise between the groups to determine what exactly the sticking points were, which meant going back and forth between the groups, albeit in a patient and quiet manner.  Once it appeared that each side seemed to arrive at similar solutions, I asked an individual from each group to meet me in a conference room to hammer these changes out.  I came prepared with 3 printed copies of the 12-page document ready to mark-up and edit - but lo and behold, the two men sat down and confirmed the changes in about 10 minutes.  Done.

Ury (2010) talks about the “Third Side” to a negotiation between two parties, which means the others that are affected by the stalemate or conflict.  In this situation, inaction would have been intolerable due to the negative impact to our customers, we just had to have this issue resolved.  Having the outside pressure placed upon the two sides undoubtedly helped motivate them to start the discussion, as neither side wanted to be seen as obstructionist. 

Another item that was working in my favor was that I relatively naïve to the stalemate between the two groups, I just wanted to fix the problem.  This is not meant to imply that complete disregard of past issues is the key to negotiation, far from it.  But I would contend that a facilitator cannot be intimidated by such history and therefore must inoculate themselves to a degree.  It’s not foolproof, but if results matter then the now and the future must be the focus. 



Ury, W. (2010, December 01). The walk from "no" to "yes" | William Ury. Retrieved October 21, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc6yi_FtoNo

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