Conflict Management: Global Connectedness & Diversity Consciousness Presentation/Report (This is a combination of the two remaining assignments on the syllabus.) Students will demonstrate knowledge of the negotiation process. Students choose a conflict management and negotiation task/topic. Students will recognize barriers to diversity across cultures and strategies for becoming a globally connected practitioner in their professional field. How to do the assignment: 1. Choose a conflict that involves global awareness based on the types of conflict. 2. Determine how to resolve it using the American Management Association's five steps to conflict resolution. 3. Conclusion: list the five CYNEFIN elements that applied to the conflict. NOTE: you may need to describe all five. This is an individual project. The presentation is a brief summary of your report (three minutes). Your report does not need to be more than two pages. If you follow the outline of "types of conflict' (choose ONE type of conflict with an intercultural issue), follow the five steps describing the resolution, and list how some or all of the CYNEFIN elements were part of the process in a coherent and correctly written report, you should do well. Types of Conflict Conflict as a disagreement through which the parties involved perceive a threat to their needs, interests or concerns. It's human nature to have conflicts and it arises for any number of reasons, including: 1. Misunderstandings 2. Personality clashes 3. Disagreements about the right way to approach a problem 4. Egos During our daily lives, we are all involved in a number of conflicts. Sometimes, the conflicts may be small, for example, a person may ignore us while we are talking. Sometimes, the conflict may be more serious, for example, two persons behaving violently toward each other. Whether big or small, conflict is not confined only to a person and the people around her/him. It can be between people one is not even associated with. A conflict can, for 2 example, be between people and the prevailing laws. Conflict does not only occur at the personal level but also at the national, and even international level. Apart from external conflicts between individuals or groups, there can also be internal conflicts within an individual. Stages of conflict There is general agreement on four basic stages of conflict. These stages are not mutually exclusive and therefore, an individual may be involved in more than one at a time. Intrapersonal: conflict within the individual (for example, a person who cannot make decisions). Interpersonal: conflict among two or more individuals (for example, an argument between a boyfriend and girlfriend, or between an employee and his supervisor, or child and parent, or between friends/colleagues). Intragroup: conflict within a group (for example, between members of the same task force or football team). The American Management Association's Five Steps to Conflict Resolution Step 1: Define the source of the conflict. The more information you have about the cause of the problem, the more easily you can help to resolve it. To get the information you need, use a series of questions to identify the cause, like, "When did you feel upset?" "Do you see a relationship between that and this incident?" "How did this incident begin?" As a manager or supervisor, you need to give both parties the chance to share their side of the story. It will give you a better understanding of the situation, as well as demonstrate your impartiality. As you listen to each disputant, say, "I see" or "uh huh" to acknowledge the information and encourage them to continue to open up to you. Step 2: Look beyond the incident. 3 Often, it is not the situation but the point of view of the situation that causes anger to fester and ultimately leads to a shouting match or other visible and disruptive result. The source of the conflict might be a minor issue that occurred months before, but the level of stress has grown to the point where the two parties have begun attacking each other personally instead of addressing the real problem. In the calm of your office, you can get them to look beyond the triggering incident to see the real cause. Once again, probing questions will help, like, "What do you think happened here?" or "When do you think the problem between you first arose? Step 3: Request solutions. After getting each party's viewpoint, the next step is to get them to identify how the situation could be changed. Again, question the parties to solicit their ideas: "How can you make things better between you? "As mediator, you have to be an active listener, aware of every verbal nuance, as well as a good reader of body language. You want to get the disputants to stop fighting and start cooperating, and that means steering the discussion away from finger pointing and toward ways of resolving the conflict Step 4: Identify solutions both disputants can support. You are listening for the most acceptable course of action. Point out the merits of various ideas, not only from each other's perspective, but in terms of the benefits to the organization. For instance, you might suggest the need for greater cooperation and collaboration to effectively address team issues and departmental problems. Step 5: Agreement. The mediator needs to get the two parties to shake hands and accept one of the alternatives identified in Step 4. The goal is to reach a negotiated agreement. Some mediators go as far as to write up a contract in which actions and time frames are specified. However, it might be sufficient to meet with the individuals and have them answer these questions: "What action plans will you both put in place to prevent conflicts from arising in the future?" and "What will you do if problems arise in the future? This mediation process works between groups as well as individuals. CYNEFIN Obvious or Simple (the known) - We've seen this a million times and as such can categorize and respond according to established best practices. The relationship between cause and effect is well known. Complicated (the knowable) - Although we don't immediately know what is happening we can analyze the situation and come to a conclusion of what must be done. We can enlist experts to analyze, set up constraints and a process addressing resolution Complex (the unknowable) - We're not able to determine what will cause a particular result. The best course of action is to conduct experiments and check if any or all take us in the correct direction. A lot of time when human opinion and decision is involved we could be working in this area: simply because humans are complex beings. Chaotic (the incoherent) - The situation is very unstable. We don't have time to experiment or probe since the situation is dire and we need to act. An IT issue that must be taken care of immediately with no delay may be categorized as such. If we have no time to figure out a system deadlock issue, we may opt to get ourselves out of this chaotic state by rebooting the server. Disorder (not determined) -- Anything whose domain has not been determined falls into this domain -adapted and emended from Canadian Conflict Consulting/assignmentpoint.com and the AMA conflict resolution model. Conflict Management: Global Connectedness & Diversity Consciousness Presentation/Report (This is a combination of the two remaining assignments on the syllabus.) Students will demonstrate knowledge of the negotiation process. Students choose a conflict management and negotiation task/topic. Students will recognize barriers to diversity across cultures and strategies for becoming a globally connected practitioner in their professional field. How to do the assignment: 1. Choose a conflict that involves global awareness based on the types of conflict. 2. Determine how to resolve it using the American Management Association's five steps to conflict resolution. 3. Conclusion: list the five CYNEFIN elements that applied to the conflict. NOTE: you may need to describe all five. This is an individual project. The presentation is a brief summary of your report (three minutes). Your report does not need to be more than two pages. If you follow the outline of "types of conflict' (choose ONE type of conflict with an intercultural issue), follow the five steps describing the resolution, and list how some or all of the CYNEFIN elements were part of the process in a coherent and correctly written report, you should do well. Types of Conflict Conflict as a disagreement through which the parties involved perceive a threat to their needs, interests or concerns. It's human nature to have conflicts and it arises for any number of reasons, including: 1. Misunderstandings 2. Personality clashes 3. Disagreements about the right way to approach a problem 4. Egos During our daily lives, we are all involved in a number of conflicts. Sometimes, the conflicts may be small, for example, a person may ignore us while we are talking. Sometimes, the conflict may be more serious, for example, two persons behaving violently toward each other. Whether big or small, conflict is not confined only to a person and the people around her/him. It can be between people one is not even associated with. A conflict can, for 2 example, be between people and the prevailing laws. Conflict does not only occur at the personal level but also at the national, and even international level. Apart from external conflicts between individuals or groups, there can also be internal conflicts within an individual. Stages of conflict There is general agreement on four basic stages of conflict. These stages are not mutually exclusive and therefore, an individual may be involved in more than one at a time. Intrapersonal: conflict within the individual (for example, a person who cannot make decisions). Interpersonal: conflict among two or more individuals (for example, an argument between a boyfriend and girlfriend, or between an employee and his supervisor, or child and parent, or between friends/colleagues). Intragroup: conflict within a group (for example, between members of the same task force or football team). The American Management Association's Five Steps to Conflict Resolution Step 1: Define the source of the conflict. The more information you have about the cause of the problem, the more easily you can help to resolve it. To get the information you need, use a series of questions to identify the cause, like, "When did you feel upset?" "Do you see a relationship between that and this incident?" "How did this incident begin?" As a manager or supervisor, you need to give both parties the chance to share their side of the story. It will give you a better understanding of the situation, as well as demonstrate your impartiality. As you listen to each disputant, say, "I see" or "uh huh" to acknowledge the information and encourage them to continue to open up to you. Step 2: Look beyond the incident. 3 Often, it is not the situation but the point of view of the situation that causes anger to fester and ultimately leads to a shouting match or other visible and disruptive result. The source of the conflict might be a minor issue that occurred months before, but the level of stress has grown to the point where the two parties have begun attacking each other personally instead of addressing the real problem. In the calm of your office, you can get them to look beyond the triggering incident to see the real cause. Once again, probing questions will help, like, "What do you think happened here?" or "When do you think the problem between you first arose? Step 3: Request solutions. After getting each party's viewpoint, the next step is to get them to identify how the situation could be changed. Again, question the parties to solicit their ideas: "How can you make things better between you? "As mediator, you have to be an active listener, aware of every verbal nuance, as well as a good reader of body language. You want to get the disputants to stop fighting and start cooperating, and that means steering the discussion away from finger pointing and toward ways of resolving the conflict Step 4: Identify solutions both disputants can support. You are listening for the most acceptable course of action. Point out the merits of various ideas, not only from each other's perspective, but in terms of the benefits to the organization. For instance, you might suggest the need for greater cooperation and collaboration to effectively address team issues and departmental problems. Step 5: Agreement. The mediator needs to get the two parties to shake hands and accept one of the alternatives identified in Step 4. The goal is to reach a negotiated agreement. Some mediators go as far as to write up a contract in which actions and time frames are specified. However, it might be sufficient to meet with the individuals and have them answer these questions: "What action plans will you both put in place to prevent conflicts from arising in the future?" and "What will you do if problems arise in the future? This mediation process works between groups as well as individuals. CYNEFIN Obvious or Simple (the known) - We've seen this a million times and as such can categorize and respond according to established best practices. The relationship between cause and effect is well known. Complicated (the knowable) - Although we don't immediately know what is happening we can analyze the situation and come to a conclusion of what must be done. We can enlist experts to analyze, set up constraints and a process addressing resolution Complex (the unknowable) - We're not able to determine what will cause a particular result. The best course of action is to conduct experiments and check if any or all take us in the correct direction. A lot of time when human opinion and decision is involved we could be working in this area: simply because humans are complex beings. Chaotic (the incoherent) - The situation is very unstable. We don't have time to experiment or probe since the situation is dire and we need to act. An IT issue that must be taken care of immediately with no delay may be categorized as such. If we have no time to figure out a system deadlock issue, we may opt to get ourselves out of this chaotic state by rebooting the server. Disorder (not determined) -- Anything whose domain has not been determined falls into this domain -adapted and emended from Canadian Conflict Consulting/assignmentpoint.com and the AMA conflict resolution model