A632.6.3.RB_SchreterPaul

I will have to admit this week assignments were ridiculously difficult for me because of the fact that I can’t recall too many conflicts that I have had! One conflict that probably took longer than it needed was maybe only a few weeks ago with the rest of my team. An incident occurred where the section that we belong to used an unapproved program of ours to help troubleshoot their components. I’m of the mindset that as long as they complete their due diligence, that it’s fine if they want to take that risk. Members of my team however, believe they shouldn’t have any access until we are 100% done with the program. Metaphorically speaking this is equivalent to wanting to release ALPHA or BETA versions of software so that the people in the field can still use something, even though it may be buggy.

The ten principles of new thinking involve the following:

Believing in abundance

Creating partnership

Being creative

Fostering sustainable collaboration

Becoming open

Forming long-term collaborations

Relying on feelings and intuition

Disclosing information and feelings

Learning throughout the resolution process

Becoming ResponseAble

I was of the mindset that perhaps we should try to come up with an agreement where everyone can win. I would like the section to still have access to our software because it would help them, my other team members don’t think they should have any access. We spent nearly all day discussing this and trying to come up with a solution when we could have been focusing on finishing the program and getting the product done sooner.

Eventually, I caved in because it’s not an issue I felt as passionate about and the other members were trying to do the right thing. It’s interesting because Steward Levine talks about becoming the mediator for a number of other people and employing these 10 principles of new thinking. By having everyone work within the same framework, it’s much easier to collaborate with one another. However, unless everyone works within the same framework, collaboration does become slightly more difficult. That being said, I was able to use a few take away such as becoming open and disclosing all information and feelings. This made it easier to try to come up with an agreement in principle. Overall I learned that during a conflict or negotiation if everyone is open with one another it’s far easier to come up with something that everyone could be happy with.

Works Cited

Levine, S. (2009). Getting to resolution: Turning conflict into resolution. Williston: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.