I offer an experiential exercise to illustrate the system, the people, and the distribution of power in organizations. The exercise has been called "Star Power” or the "Power Lab." I first experienced it as part of an experiential program conducted by NTL (National Training Laboratories), which was developed by Barry Oshry....
When people see the above title on one of my live presentations, they usually ask: “What does philosophy have to do with conflict management?” I respond: “Everything!” There are two philosophical inquiring systems that are particularly relevant to conflict management: (1) the Lockean Inquiring System and (2) the Hegelian Inquiring System....
At the heart of every reward system is a list of hidden assumptions about these fundamental questions: What is motivation? What is a reward? What is performance? What is measurement? And, accordingly, how should the organization motivate high performance -- measured accurately -- with its extrinsic and intrinsic rewards?...
Perhaps two of the most challenging conflicts confronting organizations today concern (1) formulating strategy and then (2) manifesting it throughout the organization’s lines of business, departments, workgroups, and jobs. Just like the danger of defining a problem incorrectly, developing the wrong strategy throws everything out of whack....
Here is a far-reaching question: What causes conflict? In particular, does conflict largely stem from differences within and between people? Or does conflict primarily arise from the attributes and forces in the situation, that is, the larger system within which people interact with one another? In my experience, I have found that the great majority of the conflict we experience stems from the system -- not the people....
I’d like to comment on the organic relationship between the MBTI and the TKI—between psychological types and conflict modes, and between magnifying differences and resolving differences. In this discussion, I will suggest how educational settings (high schools, colleges, and universities) can provide students with a very powerful experiential exercise—one that vividly demonstrates (1) WHY different students value some careers over others and (2) HOW they can resolve the many conflicting choices before them....
Several decades ago, I developed an experiential exercise for classroom and workshop settings in order to accelerate people's understanding and internalization of the five modes. I first assess the conflict modes of 20 to 50 participants, without their scoring their results. I do that for them so they won't see their high or low modes....
The culture of a family, community, or organization partially determines whether a given conflict mode (particularly collaborating) can be used effectively. In this discussion, I will briefly outline how the actual cultural norms can first be identified and then changed into desired norms -- so that all conflict modes can be used effectively....
People often ask me to clarify compromising and collaborating, especially since these two modes involve both people getting their needs met. In particular, people often use the word “compromise” to indicate that they have successfully resolved the matter at hand. The key distinction concerns whose needs get met (and to what extent) as a result of using a particular conflict mode....
People often ask me to spell out the difference between accommodating and avoiding. Or, as some say: "Accommodating is an easy way to avoid, since you can quickly remove yourself from the situation by giving in to the other person. So what’s the difference?" ...
