Conflict Negotiation in Engineering Project Teams Advanced Interpersonal Effectiveness

1. Conflict Negotiation in Engineering Project TeamsAdvanced Interpersonal Effectiveness

2. Interpersonal EffectivenessLearning Objectives • Understanding conflicts that affect the team process • Ability to handle team conflicts • Knowledge of negotiation • Improved communication through deeper exposure to ways of listening

3. “Conflict is a form of interaction among parties that differ in interest, perceptions, and preferences.” • (Osland, J.S., Kolb, D. A., & Rubin, I. M., 2001)

4. Exercise: Your Experience of Team Conflict • Factual Situation • Effects on Team Member(s) • How was It Handled? • Effects of Resolution on Team Member(s)

5. Why Conflict Management? • Teams in engineering involve both interpersonal and technical competencies • Members’ skills differ in both technical tasks and interpersonal relationship management • These differences can result in conflict that impacts the successful completion of the project • Projects often are endangered because of feuding team members!

6. Topics Covered in Intermediate Module • Constructive vs. destructive conflict • Types of intragroup conflict • Conflict management styles • Collaborative style • XYZ Model

7. Summary of Intermediate • No team can function without some level of conflict • Being comfortable in dealing with conflict will increase the productivity/creativity of the team and lead to a better engineering product • We discussed: • Reality of conflict and the need to resolve it • Intervening: conflict management styles (Collaborative) • XYZ model of responding to conflicts

8. Summary (cont.) • Handling special cases of conflict: • Deadlock • Failure • Although conflict always involves emotions at some level, strategies for solving the situation require cognitive skills (diagnosis, problem solving, leadership) and some degree of risk taking • Conflict Management is a transferable skill that can be used beyond the team setting: LEARN IT/USE IT/BENEFIT from IT!

9. “Team” Conflict • Some conflicts escalate to the level where the successful functioning of the team is affected. • This module starts to address ways of resolving those conflicts and learning from them.

10. Conventional Responses • The following conventional responses could appear to address the conflict but may not be effective: • Withdrawal, staying silent • Denial • Dominance • Suppression • Placate

11. How is the Conflict Manifested in the Team? • Once you have identified a team conflict, determine how the conflict is manifested (and how it needs to be resolved): • Attitudes: almost always poor • Behaviors: unreliable, inconsistent • Structural: team infrastructure is not working (meetings, communication frequency, jobs)

12. Exercise: Solutions to Conflict • Take one of the conflicts that you listed before and ask yourself: • Was it due to attitudes, behaviors, or structural? • How did you handle the conflict? • Who were the parties who developed the solution ? • How did they contribute?

13. Interventions • Intervention’s goal is to disrupt the conflict evidenced by unproductive attitudes, behaviors, and structure • First attempts at conflict resolution should take place between team members (i.e., peers) • Positive effects include: • The project gets back on track and the team process is realigned for success • Team members develop skills for handling project-threatening conflicts

14. Interventions • As discussed previously, there are many appropriate techniques for peer-to-peer interventions that can be used to handle conflict including the XYZ model and collaborative conflict resolution. • When these actions fail, deadlock may occur and third party intervention is necessary.

15. Third Party Intervention • Deadlock is a special case of conflict: the team has come to a grinding HALT3 • Ignoring the deadlock is NOT an option, so new intervention strategies are needed • Negotiation (the subject of this module) • Arbitration • Ruling from a higher authority

16. Negotiation • Definition: It is the process of finding an agreement that is satisfactory to all of the groups/individuals involved. • It is used to ensure a “win-win” situation. • Negotiation is best when it includes the members in conflict and peers who are stakeholders in the process • Or, a third party may be called when ongoing conflict resolution/negotiation does not work among the team members .

17. Characteristics of a Successful Negotiation • It should: • Be timely and effective with the parties • Produce an agreement that results in a resolution of the conflict and a revitalized team process • Improve the relationships between the individuals, strengthening the team

18. Negotiation Skills • When negotiating, all parties must4: • Separate the team members from the issue • Articulate own objectives and desired resolution of the issue • Listen to everyone involved. Discuss the specifics of the issue • Acknowledge other points-of-view

19. Negotiation Skills • In “Principled” Negotiation2,a negotiator should: • Help the parties develop objective criteria for solutions • Separate the members from the issue – be tough on the issue not the members. • Focus on the issue not the different viewpoints. • Develop different solutions that are satisfactory to all. • Think about the consequences of the decision among team members and outside the team. • Do not just try to win. Work on finding an acceptable resolution for all involved.

20. Negotiation - Challenges • Challenges that may impact the negotiation may include:5 • A re-statement of confrontational positions • Personal agendas that are not acknowledged • Psychological and emotional makeup of team members, including their past conflict management styles • Communication breakdown due to language barriers or misunderstanding or…

21. When Negotiation Fails • A negotiation process may not lead to consensus within the time allowed • Resolution of the problem is still required, so the team moves to another form of intervention (i.e., arbitration or external ruling) • Remember: it’s okay to request instructor intervention if team facilitated interventions are not successful

22. Choosing to Continue Teamwork • Conflict resolution and negotiation may fail • The team must choose • What team consequences to impose on the uncooperative member(s) • How to continue project progress • The terms of continuing to work as a team should be clear to all parties

23. Conflict Negotiation Summary • Knowing how to identify team conflict ensures that mitigating actions can be taken immediately • Conflict resolution strategies allow teams to overcome deadlock • Negotiation is a preferred intervention so that team members become comfortable with these skills • Negotiation failure does not mean the project is abandoned: the team must go on

24. Optional Slides: Practicing Negotiation Skills • To be an effective ‘principled’ negotiator you need to be effective in the arena of communication. • This section coaches you regarding pitfalls and practices for effective communication

25. Communication • Most people worry about what they are going to say, but to be a effective negotiator…. • Listening is more important than speaking • How you listen has the power to affect how it turns out • How are you listening? • What you already know? • What can be created?

26. Reactive Listening • What is this this type of listening? • What you know about the people and the process to date • Allows pre-conceived notions to color interactions • Test for reactive listening: Are you coming into the negotiation with a fixed viewpoint or one specific outcome you think must occur?

27. Proactive Listening • What is this listening like? • You need to listen the possibilities beyond the words being said • What is offered in partial solution to the problem or in movement toward your position? • Why would other members hold fast to certain positions and not offer compromises? • What are your unshakeable positions and why are you holding to them?

28. Proactive Listening • A new level of relationship/appreciation • Can you discover something new about them or yourself you didn’t know before? • A new possibility for the project • Is there something about why you/they are together that inspires you/them? • A new way of working together • A new way that you can organize yourselves? • What is possible that you or they didn’t come in with.

29. Exercise #1 • Pair up • One of you (A) picks a part of the project that you are really excited about which you will share with your partner • The other partner (B) will listen from a “reactive” place • For example, interact like you ‘already know’ about what they want to say • (A) shares for two minutes, then stop and discuss what that was like (Make sure you do the exercise, do not bailout early) • Then switch • Group sharing on what you observed

30. Exercise #2 • Pair up • One of you (A) picks a part of the project that you are really excited about which you will share with your partner • The other partner (B) will listen from a “proactive” place • For example, what is possible that you didn’t know before or an appreciation of the other person • (A) shares for two minutes, then stop and discuss what that was like (Make sure you do the exercise, do not bailout early) • Then switch • Group sharing on what you observed

31. Summary • When conflicts escalate to the level of affecting the total team they … • When a team cannot resolve it’s own issues, a negotiator can provide a role to resolve the conflict • There are ways of listening that are powerful for discovering solutions

32. Conflict Resolution and Negotiation: References • 1 Osland, J.S., Kolb, D.A., & Rubin, I. M. (2001) The Organizational Behavior Reader (7th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. • 2 Osland, J.S., Kolb, D.A., & Rubin, I.M. (2001). Organizational Behavior (7th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. • 4 http://nadabs.tripod.com/team/conflictguide.html • 5 http://ecu3.msh.org/quality/ittools/itnegot.cfm