The challenges teams face

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The challenges teams face

• Dr. Mac McCrory
• July 11, 2008

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Challenges

• Team work (organizational effectiveness)
• Communication
• Resolving disputes/issues
• Appraisal, criticism, coaching

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Teamwork

• Working together for a common cause
• Understanding the mission
• Overall effectiveness v. departmental
  effectiveness v. individual performance
• Teams are
• Involved
• Motivated
• Positive

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Communication

• A 2 way process (input, output)
• Involves listening and speaking
• Goal is to reach a common understanding
• Words, symbols, signs, tone, body language, AND
• Perception (values, experiences, and personality)

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Communication

• Verbal content
• The words we speak and write
• Tone, inflection, volume, attitude
• How we project the words
• Body language
• What people see in our words

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Communication restrictors

• What happens when you restrict access?
• No body language (phone)
• No tone (email)
• Limited content (text)

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Which is more important?

• The words we speak (write)?
• The way we speak them?
• How we are perceived?

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The most important aspect of communication is.

• Listening
• The opposite of listening is disinterest

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Communication is the most important skill in
resolving issues and disputes
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Resolve issues IFRelationships are Important

• Family
• Friends
• Co-workers
• Bosses
• Subordinates
• Customers
• Patients, consumers, clients, residents

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What to expect from dispute/issue management

• Maintain relationships
• Give take
• Manage the issue
• it doesnt go away, deal with it
• Resolve the conflict/dispute
• You dont always get your way
• win some/win some

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Issue v People

• View from a micro/personal level
• Individual personalities
• Communication, skills, practice
• View from a macro/organizational level
• Company, departments, teams
• Formal (ADR in place), informal (promotion)
• Functional v. non-functional
• Do disputes disrupt your flow?

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Micro/Personal Level

• Personality differences
• Conflict styles
• Skill development
• Practice what you learn

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Who areDifficult People?

• Are difficult people really just different?
• FROM US?
• Different perceptions of life?
• Different personalities?
• Different styles of communication?
• Different styles of dealing with conflict?

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Perception, Personality, and Communication

• Perception determines communication
• Personality determines perception
• Understanding your personality characteristics
  helps you communicate better
• Understanding others more effective
  communication

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Why bother trying to understand personalities?

• We are all different
• If we start with this idea we can quickly move to
  one size does NOT fit all . . . .
• Understanding and developing yourself as a person
  (spouse, parent, friend, co-worker, customer)

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Why bother trying to understand personalities?

• To understand and better care for your customers
  (internal external)
• To understand what motivates your customers
• We can help them better understand the various
  assumptions they may make about each other.

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Personality Spectrum

• Our personalities are a mix of many different
  characteristics and attributes
• Assessment tools tend to cluster these
  characteristics into a FEW groups
• You may possess more of one group and some of all
  the rest.
• Value diversity to create unity
• Learn to DEAL with all personality types

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Our Personality is a mix of many characteristics,
attitudes, behaviors, styles its how we relate
to other people and to the situations that life
presents. It is difficult to CLUSTER people into
4, 6, 8, or any number of combinations. We are
who we are. We share some styles with others and
hold many of our own unique behaviors.
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Four Ways to View Personality

• True Colors
• Based on Myers Briggs Personality Inventory
• Orange out going, adventuresome
• Blue Harmonious Relationships
• Gold Organized, Dependable
• Green analytical, visionary

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Personality Assessment Rules

• Your assessment of who you are
• Not what you think others think you are
• Not what you think you want to be
• Not what you think you should be
• Find a color that is MOST like you
• Not all statements will apply

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Orange

• I act on a moments notice
• I am charming, witty, spontaneous
• I consider life as a game, here and now
• I need variety, stimulation, excitement
• Optimistic, eager, bold
• I am a natural trouble shooter, performer, and
  competitor

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Blue

• I need to feel unique and authentic
• Enthusiastic, sympathetic, personal
• I look for meaning and significance in life
• Warm, communicative, compassionate
• I need to encourage, contribute, and care
• Idealistic, spiritual, sincere
• Natural romantic, poet, and nurturer
• Peaceful, flexible, imaginative

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Gold

• I follow the rules and respect authority
• Loyal, dependable, prepared
• Strong sense of what is right and wrong
• Thorough, sensible, punctual
• I need to be useful and to belong
• Faithful, stable, organized
• I value home, family, tradition
• Caring, concerned, concrete

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Green

• I need knowledge and understanding
• Analytical, global, conceptual
• I live life by my own standards
• I need explanations and answers
• Inventive, logical, perfectionist
• I value intelligence, insight, fairness, justice
• Abstract hypothetical, investigative
• Independent thinker, non-conformist, problem
  solver, visionary

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Orange at Work

• I am bored and restless with jobs that are
  routine and structured
• Allow me independence and freedom while using my
  physical coordination and love of tools
• I am a natural performer

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Blue at Work

• I have a strong desire to influence others so
  they lead more significant lives
• I often work in the arts, communications,
  education, helping professions
• I am adept at motivating and interacting with
  others

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Gold at work

• I provide stability, maintain organization
• Ability to handle details and work hard make me
  the backbone of organizations
• I believe that work comes before play, even if I
  must work overtime to complete the job

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Green at work

• I am conceptual, an independent thinker
• Work is play drawn to constant challenge in
  careers and like to develop models, explore
  ideas, build systems to satisfy my need to deal
  with the innovative
• Once I have perfected my ideas, I prefer to move
  on, leaving details to others

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Orange in love

• I seek relationships with shared activities and
  interests
• With my mate, I explore new ways to energize the
  relationship
• Bold lover, physical contact
• Plans flexible so I can choose what to do when
  the moment arrives

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Blue in love

• I seek harmony and believe in true love
• I am romantic, cherish small gestures of love
• Affectionate, supportive, good listener
• I enjoy doing thoughtful things for others
• I bring drama, warmth, and empathy to
  relationships

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Gold in love

• I am serious traditional, conservative views of
  both love and marriage
• I want a mate who can work along with me,
  building a secure, predictable life together
• I demonstrate love and affection through the
  practical things I do for my loved ones

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Green in love

• I prefer to let my head rule my heart
• I dislike repetition, so it is difficult to
  continuously express feelings
• Once feelings are stated, they are obvious to a
  partner
• I am uneasy when my emotions control me
• Career over relationships

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Assessment Tools

• Myers Briggs
• Insightful Strategies (Colours)
• True Colors (simple, fun)
• Working with Style (work related, calm, storm)
• How to use them
• Tools to help us assess our team function
• Appreciate differences, create unity

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Diverse PersonalitiesWe are all different we
are all alike

• Strengths (utilizing individual strengths to
  create team unity and achieve goals)
• Joys (how do we measure success, reward)
• Values (whats important to each of us)
• Stresses (what causes it and how do we respond to
  it)
• Operational codes (the functional aspect of all
  of these components)

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Negotiation, partnering, communication (dealing
w/ people)

• Understanding and appreciating the differences in
  the other parties
• Demonstrating that appreciation in your
  conversation
• Getting what you want
• Getting what you need
• Getting to a mutually beneficial state
• Position v interest based negotiation

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Interests v. Positions(Getting to Yes. Fisher
Ury)

• Interests
• Objective, measurable
• For the good of the order (what you need)
• Focused on issues
• Positions
• Subjective, emotional attachment
• For the good of the individual (what you want)
• Focused on people (personalities)

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Interest-Based Model

• Minimizes the use of power in negotiation
• Bases negotiation on identifying mutually
  beneficial solutions

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Principles of Interest-Based Negotiations

• Separate people from problems
• Focus on interests (issues),
• not positions (people)
• Use objective criteria to develop fair
  satisfactory options for both sides
• Evaluate options according to standards, not
  power
• BATNA

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Interest-Based NegotiationsAssumptions

• Communication enhances relationships
• All parties receive benefits
• Each party should help the other
• Open discussion expands interests and options
• Standards replace power
• Anger is defused

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Benefits of IBN/DR

• Parties are more satisfied
• Greater range of options
• More creative solutions
• Feel better toward one another
• Relationships preserved
• Parties retain more control
• Interests of all are better served
• Compliance is greater

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Conflict Styles How do you deal with conflict?

• Withdraw (physical or emotional)
• Surrender (capitulate, give-in)
• Hostile aggression
• Persuasion
• Dialogue
• Exchange of ideas, opinions, attitudes, facts,
  perceptions
• Compromise
• When is compromise inappropriate?

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Five Styles of Conflict Management
Compete
Collaborate
Issues
Compromise
Accommodate
Avoid
Relationships

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When to use your conflict skills

• To disagree or criticize someone else
• To probe or investigate (problem ID)
• When ideas or personal feeling are involved
• Appraisal, criticize, coach

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Disagree, criticize

• Based on your perception
• Based on your experience
• Based on the facts as you know them
• Issue v people based
• Performance v personal

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Probe, investigate (to grill or not to grill?)

• Lets talk about.
• What is your perception of..
• What do think about
• Tell me about the situation and your response
  to..

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Ideas Feelings

• Self disclosure is based on mutual trust
• I have had similar feelings or
• I knew someone in a similar situation
• Describing (I felt..) v. expressing (crying,
  hugging, laughing, non-verbal, facial)
• One-sided vulnerability
• If feelings are NOT verbally communicated,
  assumptions are made that may NOT represent true
  feelings

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Active Listening Skills

• Commit to sincerely understand/respond to what is
  said
• Move away from distractions
• Maintain eye contact adjust slightly toward the
  person speaking (when culturally appropriate)
• Acknowledge the speaker by slightly nodding or
  smiling
• Listen carefully for the main idea being
  expressed
• Clarify information ask questions at
  appropriate intervals
• In your own words, restate to the speaker what
  you heard
• Summarize your understanding back to the speaker.

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Active Listening Skills (cont)

• Empathize with the speaker --- put yourself "in
  the other person's shoes" to understand their
  thoughts and emotions
• I versus U statements
• Demonstrate your understanding and receptivity to
  the speaker with appropriate, non-verbal
  behaviors
• - respond in a calm tone of voice
• - incorporate calming physical gestures
• - use appropriate eye contact
• - display receptive body posture
• Don't interrupt, give advice or try to make
  corrections, nor try to inject your own personal
  feelings or problems

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Talking skills

• I versus You statements
• No buts
• Yackus interruptess
• Open ended questions
• What do you think?
• What is your take on this issue?

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Macro/organizational view

• Variety of ADR processes available
• Informal
• Discussion
• Partnering
• Collaboration
• Formal
• Facilitation, Mediation, Arbitration
• Team Building
• Education

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How does your organization deal with conflict?

• Meetings
• Water cooler gossip
• Avoid it
• Deny that it exists
• Open discussion forum
• ADR program in place
• Outside professionals

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Cost Equation
Predictable Conflict
Weak Systems
High Costs


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Contributions to Weak Systems

• Poor Skills
• Procedures Based on Higher Authority
• No Link to Mission
• Overuse of Litigation to Resolve Disputes
• Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as an
  Add-on
• Inadequate Prevention

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High Costs of Conflict

• Litigation Expenses
• Lost Time
• Turnover
• Long-Term Relationships
• Lost Business

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Binding Arbitration
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Facilitation The Process

• Group communication process
• Neutral 3rd Party/Team engages with stakeholders
  to help participants link their interests
  concerns within the context of their specific
  setting
• Voluntary
• Typically not binding, but outcomes can be
  brought into binding, legal documents

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Mediation The Process

• Generally smaller group (N 2 - 6)
• Usually only 1 or 2 issues (sides)
• Uses 3rd party neutral (trained mediator)
• Casual mediation occurs LOTS (all supervisors are
  mediators)
• Outcomes are binding in that all parties agree
• The more involvement on the part of the
  stakeholders, the more compliance with solutions
• Voluntary? Confidential?

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Arbitration The Process

• Utilizes a neutral 3rd Party or panel of neutrals
• Binding or Non-Binding/Advisory
• Outcomes determined exclusively by the
  neutral(s), unless reverts back to participants
  Med/Arb
• Testimony of witnesses
• Confidentiality (subject to open records?)

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Appraisals, criticism, coachingmajor components
include Communication and dispute resolution
skills AND applying those skills
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For more information, contact

• Dr. Mac McCrory
• mac.mccrory_at_cox.net
• 405-996-8428