Making Conflict Work by Peter T. Coleman

Author:Peter T. Coleman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

6. IMPOSE STRUCTURE ON GROUP DECISIONS

Use your influence over ground rules and decision agendas to guide people through confusion and conflict to optimal decisions.

As Jonathan became aware of new competition in the region, he wanted to find ways to attract and keep the best talent, and he wanted to remain profitable if competitors tried to compete on prices. After studying several profit-sharing models, he decided to get his senior staff involved: “We have new competitors in the area, and I want this company to stay on top. I hope all of you continue working here because you like it and because you’re paid well. I’ve prepared a summary of several different ways to increase your pay based on performance, and I think we have to move on this soon or we’ll have trouble recruiting the best engineers and salespeople as we continue to grow.”

Then he handed the team a thick binder of information and left for a four-day business trip. When he returned, he discovered his team in disarray. They were asking themselves and each other anxious questions: “Is the company in trouble because of a major competitor? Will we make less money? Does this mean I have to compete with my coworkers to prove I’m worth my salary? Is Jonathan hiding something from us?”

Over the course of several days he tried to reassure the team and the entire company, but he couldn’t extinguish their anxiety. Jonathan had given his team too much detailed information about profit-sharing models and too little information about how the group could choose a model that was advantageous to the company and its employees, leaving them feeling overwhelmed. So he called another meeting and narrowed the decision to two models he felt would be good for a company of their size. The team’s job was to choose one and then to figure out the scorecards upon which profit sharing would be based. Nobody would make any less money, he emphasized, and everyone would make more money whenever the company was more profitable.

Over the next few days, the arguments ended, confidence returned, and rumors evaporated.

When control is used in the right context and in the right proportion to the situation, it instills confidence. We want someone to take charge in tense, important, or ambiguous situations. We need to know some of the basic parameters of a complex decision so we can wrap our minds around it.

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