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Resolving Conflict

Pat Wagner from Pattern Research Inc. gave a great presentation for resolving conflict at the SirsiDynix SuperConference last week. Here’s her three main tips:
I. What do you to have happen instead oof what is happening?
1. Is the outcome an internal or external outcome?
2. Is the problem a personal or personnel problem?
3. Are you being specific?
4. Are you being emotionally neutral?
5. What will this outcome do for you?
6. What are five other ways to get this outcome?
7. What esle would you want to have happen instead of your first choice?
II. What about the other persons?
1. What is the cost of change for them? What is the benefit for them?
2. How will this outcome affect the other person(s)?
3. How will this outcome affect other people indirectly?
4. How will this outcome affect other departments?
5. How will this outcome affect the other library?
6. How will this outcome affect library users?
7. How will this outcome affect the larger institution or community?
III. What are you going to do instead of what you are doing, in order to change the outcome from what you have to what you want?
1. How will you build rapport back with the person?
2. Do you need to stop talking about the person to others?
3. Do you need to change your day-to-day behavior with them?
4. What details of your behavior do you need to change?
5. Have you received criticism about your own behavior that you need to consider?
6. What are five behaviors that really annoy you in other people?
7. How can you learn if these are behaviors that you do as well?
8. How will you measure success?
Why would a technology company have sessions on conflict resolution? Because most of the issues that arise from these projects are interpersonal, not technological.
If you ever get to see Pat in action, here session are wonderful.
Stephen

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Posted on: March 10, 2006, 12:24 pm Category: Uncategorized

By: stephen

rev="post-195" 2 comments

2 Responses

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  1. T. Scott said
    on March 10, 2006 12:53 pm

    Let me second that — we’ve had Pat come and do several workshops for our staff and she’s brilliant. She’s also very affordable and very willing to work within whatever budget you might have. She can do workshops on a wide variety of critical topics and you will not regret either attending one of her workshops or arranging to have her do an in-house workshop in your library.

  2. Kelly Graves said
    on March 20, 2006 11:26 am

    In my line of work – primarily workplace conflict resolution – I see so many organizations out there that just assume that managers know how to manage and that employees know how to resolve conflict. While in all reality very few do. This is generally by no fault of their own but rather a simple lack of knowledge and/or training.
    It is great to see more organizations out there who are training their staff in how to deal with each other on an interpersonal level. At first glance a CEO, manager etc. assumes that this type of training does nothing for the bottom line. But when you get into it and start training, they see unparallel improvement in productivity because SO MUCH less time is spent dealing with the conflicts among staff. It is always amazing to me how much time is spent managing conflict within organizations!