Adapt and Innovate?

1. Adapt and Innovate? A Look at Conflict and Consensus in Decision Making Therese E. Ritter, MCT New Horizons Computer Learning Centers—Great Lakes

2. Topics for Discussion • Conflict • Views of Conflict • Advantages and Disadvantages • Sources of Conflict • Resolution Techniques • Consensus • Total Agreement vs. Total Support • Six Steps to Consensus

3. Conflict Management and Resolution • Project Managers spend as much as 20% of their time resolving conflict. • A study found that the project manager’s ability to resolve conflict was highly correlated to the probability of project success. • Conflict is unavoidable due to individuals goals and backgrounds, and limited resources. • Project Managers will need to anticipate, mitigate, and on occasion, encourage conflict.

4. Views of Conflict • Traditional View – Conflict is disruptive, and should be minimized at all costs. Popular until mid-1940’s. • Behavioral (contemporary) View – Conflict is natural and inevitable. It can be positive or negative. Management of conflict is the key. • Interactionalist View – Conflict is necessary. If conflict level is too low, people are complacent, they fear offering their opinions, etc.

5. Conflict Advantages and Disadvantage • Organizations require certain levels of conflict to inspire better ideas, to raise individual and group performance, to improve overall quality, and to balance participant power. • Unmanaged and unproductive conflict results in increased stress, distorted behavior (loyalty at the cost of creativity or effectiveness), and reduced openness to change.

6. Sources of Project Management Conflict • Schedules – Disagreements over network diagrams, time estimates • Project Priorities (goal incompatibilities) – Priorities between projects, perceived priority between project manager and functional managers • Resource Allocation – People, equipment, facilities • Technical Opinions – Performance specs, technical issues

7. Sources of Project Management Conflict • Administrative Procedures – How the project will be managed. E.g. How much reporting, how much administrative support the project needs. • Cost – How much to spend, who should pay, etc. • Personality – Individual styles, perceptions, attitudes, and egos. • Communication problems – Problems with encoding, decoding, media, etc.

8. Sources of Conflict and the Project Life Cycle

9. Conflict Resolution Techniques • Withdrawal – Refusing to deal with the conflict. Good for cooling off and information gathering periods, but generally fails to resolve the issue. • Forcing – One party overwhelms the other. Used if parties are uncooperative, or if goals are mutually exclusive. Appropriate if time is the overwhelming priority, if the goals of the organization or project are in jeopardy. The least effective in the long run.

10. Conflict Resolution Techniques • Smoothing – Emphasizing agreement versus disagreements. Keeps short-term peace, used if any solution is appropriate, but fails to resolve the issue. • Compromising – Some degree of satisfaction, though neither party wins.

11. Conflict Resolution Techniques • Confronting (problem solving) – Involves defining the problem, identifying alternatives, and choosing an alternative. Requires time and a cooperative perspective. • Collaborating – Involves including multiple viewpoints and ideas. Not effective with numerous stakeholders or mutually exclusive ideas.

12. Other Conflict Resolution Techniques • Majority Rules • Mediation – Third party assistance • Arbitration – Third party decides

13. Guidelines for Managing Conflict • Questions for participants to ask: • What is happening that I don’t like? • What is not happening that I would like? • What should happen for me to say, “This situation is no longer an issue?”

14. What exactly is Consensus? • In an ideal world, Consensus would be total agreement • Teams are more committed • Teams put more effort into the implementation of a decision. • Total agreement is sometimes unrealistic, due to personal agendas and concerns

15. What exactly is Consensus? • If total agreement is not possible and • All team members feel an adequate amount of time has been provided to address all conflicts, then all that is needed is • Total Support • The decision is supported by all team members • Some team members may not have favored that particular option

16. Can I Live With It?--When to Adapt or Innovate

17. Six steps to Consensus • Make specific proposals • Listen to concerns • Respond to concerns • Create alternatives • Look for tension points or quiet members • Choose the best option

18. Thank you for your time!