1. Conflict Negotiation in Engineering Project Teams Advanced Interpersonal Effectiveness

2. Interpersonal Effectiveness Learning 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 5