Global Public Articles

Conflict is part of life, and it is perhaps close to inevitable in the workplace. As you and your coworkers work toward developing new ideas and improving and marketing your products and services, clashes in personality, philosophy, and intent are not just expected, but almost inescapable.

The good news is that conflict does not have to be a negative experience - if dealt with correctly, conflict can be a springboard for sharing ideas, developing strategies, and working together successfully as a team. However, if those involved do not know how to respond effectively to conflict, more problems will be created instead of solved.

The first step in responding effectively to conflict is to be aware of yourself, your motives, and your emotions. Everyone wants their ideas to be heard, considered, and valued, and if our thoughts and feelings aren’t acknowledged and appreciated, we often become hurt and angry.

These unconstructive emotions can lead to a downward spiral of disrespect, hurt feelings, and harmful statements and certainly doesn’t resolve problems or move projects forward. Don’t become motivated by fear of rejection or by revenge or insecurity - these incentives will often lead to over-competitiveness, personal attacks or dishonesty.

By becoming aware of your sensitive reactions, you can transform an emotional dispute into a process of productive information exchange.

Understand that the empowerment that you might feel when belittling another’s arguments is false - you will only get authentic empowerment by working with others and finding a functional solution for your company’s issue.

The second step in responding effectively to conflict is to be aware of others and what they are trying to convey to you. Other people are just like you - they only want their thoughts to be heard and considered, not shrugged away or ignored.

Even though you might feel confident that you are “right,” it is imperative that you stop and listen to the other person and gain a solid understanding of their points and ideas. Over-believing your own stances can be extremely detrimental to working in a group and in coming up with the optimal solutions for your business.

In general, focus on communication instead of on winning the argument or making yourself look or feel good. Take responsibility and have your ideas clearly understood and clearly understand others’ ideas.

Don’t fall prey to personal ambitions or fears: you will serve your goals best by staying professional and concentrating on resolving the issue at hand.

The third step in successfully avoiding conflict is to leave your assumptions at the door. Assumptions are a major cause of misunderstandings, and misunderstandings are at the heart of the majority of conflicts.

Many people will assume that those around them hold the same value system that they do; that they share the same amount of knowledge or information that you do; or that everyone shares the same intentions or motivations.

When entering into a discussion that could devolve into a conflict, instead of assuming anything, treat the interaction as if you do not have a complete understanding of the situation.

Ask questions and build your knowledge. Gather information. Treat your conversation as a learning experience. Even if you think that you know the truth of the situation and the solution for the problem, consider that there are other truths that exist and that there could be alternative solutions.

Assumptions will not only hinder communication, they can also alienate you (and your ideas) from others.

Depending on the situation, you may need to choose one of five specific conflict management styles: competing, accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, and compromising. While a collaborative style is the most ideal style, there are sometimes reasons for a different approach.

For example, if you need some of your interests met, but not all of them, a compromising style might be the most valid choice. An avoiding style might be optimal when dealing with a very negative conflict that you do not want to involve yourself with.

An accommodating style might be best if you are looking out for someone else’s interests, while a competing style might be best if you absolutely require your needs to be met.

Once you have established a healthy line of communication between the parties, you can start to exchange information in a productive manner. Establish what the issue is first, followed by what your goals and motives are.

After you have a solid foundation of information and mutual understanding, you can move on to possible resolutions as a unified group. Although not everyone will agree on everything, you can at least be assured that each person and opinion involved is clearly understood, respected, and valued.

It is also important to note that conflict should not be avoided, however unpleasant it may seem. Avoiding conflicts means avoiding problems and allowing them to fester and grow, while facing problems with an open mind and the right attitude can solve them.

Although negative conflict - in which dishonesty, miscommunication, and assumption thrive - won’t help anyone, a positive conversation in which ideas and information is exchanged and in which everyone can come to an understanding if not a solution, will always encourage future positive interactions.

Also, be sure to learn from past conflicts. Reflect upon how the conflict arose and how you could have handled the situation more effectively. Could you have listened more closely to the other person’s ideas instead of being determined to have everything your way?

Could you have explored the situation together instead of making assumptions or pointing fingers? Could you have been more patient?

In the end, it is most important not to think of a conflict as a dispute in which one side “wins” and the other side “loses.” Especially in workplace conflicts, a situation where one side feels shamed and ignored in the end will only lead to more conflicts in the future.

If some are made to feel unappreciated, disrespected, or unvalued, they will incite more conflicts based on gaining personal empowerment and dispelling their fears instead of on making your company a better place. These negative conflicts will be based on personal feelings, anger, and ostracism instead of on brainstorming and idea exchange.

Although no one likes taking part in a conflict, they can prove to be learning experiences for everyone. If each party enters the conversation aware of both themselves and of others, positive conflicts can lead to a useful exchange of information and ideas as well as a window into how others feel and think about the world.

If you view a conflict as an opportunity instead of a personal confrontation, you will find yourself gaining important insights instead of making enemies.

Copyright 2008 Michelle P Simms, personal development coach. My ideal client is not defined by a specific profession, but by the passion she has to grow personally and professionally. Michelle works with women around the globe. You can find her at http://www.SimmsInternational.com

What do we really know about our leaders? We yearn to know enough to be confident in following them and, ideally, to emulate them. Perhaps you can name the leaders in the forefront of your industry or profession. Maybe you believe you could be more successful if you could be more like them, so you study their works, buy their books and perhaps even seek jobs in their organizations. Even when you’ve studied all you can about them and believe you understand the keys to their success, you don’t. There’s one more thing you must do.

Your quest for excellence is a noble journey. Unfortunately, the path often leads to insane frustration instead of triumphant success when seemingly little things are overlooked. Sometimes just one simple thing is the key to resolving the performance barriers that have been holding you back, allowing you to finally achieve your objectives with ease.

Show or Tell

It’s been decades since apprenticeship was the common road to mastery of a profession or craft. Today college is the conventional answer, with knowledge dispensed via lecture halls, online courses, and e-mail exchanges with professors. Connections are casual and not very close. Today we are more isolated from the people from whom we need to learn. Technology makes it easy for leaders to protect their personal space and keep learners at a distance. Yes, we’re learning, but we’re not learning enough. We are not learning the important piece.

No matter how intently we listen to what others say, no matter how closely we watch what they do, our mimicry will be imperfect because we really won’t understand why they do what they do. We must get close enough to understand the back-story. If we want to truly learn from another, we must get close enough to hear them breathe.

Nano Lessons

The leaders in our profession have made thousands of tiny choices which, in combination, have enabled them to perform at high levels. To perform similarly, we must understand their value system and how they came to make those choices. That’s how successful leaders of the past learned to succeed.

- Benjamin Franklin served as an apprentice to his brother James to learn the printing trade. Franklin’s success as a printer later funded his kite flying and political ventures.

- James Lick was the richest man in California when he died in 1876. He learned the piano making craft from his father, and Lick’s mastery of those skills was the cornerstone to building his fortune.

- Levi Strauss learned the clothing business working side-by-side with his older brothers Louis and Jonas in New York City. Six years later he moved to San Francisco to open up shop, and soon discovered an opportunity to apply what he knew to make rugged trousers for the gold miners.

Go to the Source

The words a leader uses and the acts they perform are only clues to how they think. Every person has an historical perspective and a point of view, or lens, they use to look at the world in which they perform. Unless you get close enough to hear a top performer breathe, you’ll never have the opportunity to learn and discern those things.

How a leader thinks is the key to understanding how they take in information, process it, and send it out, much like breath. Until you understand the source of what they say and do, you’re missing the key ingredient that will enable you to duplicate their successful performance.

The top performers in any area of expertise require years to acquire and apply what they know to perform at peak levels. Be patient. A need for speed defeats success. Invest the time to build relationships and learn from the best, and allow breathing to occur at its natural pace. Don’t rush it or you’ll hyperventilate and get dizzy. Set aside the e-mail and the Internet, and arrange to spend long periods of time working side-by-side with the leaders from whom you want to learn. Breathe the same air long enough and one day you’ll find others eager to duplicate your excellence as well.

Copyright 2008 Paul Johnson.

Paul Johnson the Trouble Breaker at http://TroubleBreaker.com works with organizations like ADP, AutoNation and Roller Skating Business Magazine to convert trouble into double and triple digit performance breakthroughs. Discover neglected markets with The Great Brand Rush at http:/NicheExpert.com.

In explaining success, some people are quick to assert that “It’s all in who you know.” But how many act on that observation to get to know more people?

Relatively few, I believe. More often, this statement serves merely as an excuse to explain why the speaker hasn’t accomplished more.

But should you seek out people just for what they can do for you in making you more successful? It doesn’t sound like a commendable idea, does it?

What should you do instead? Let’s look at lessons from how some leaders have approached starting and building relationships.

Many people believe that business leaders should focus on organizing employees to meet sales and profit goals that reward shareholders. In recent years, we’ve seen some terrible mistakes (mortgage brokers putting people into homes they couldn’t afford), business failures (investment banks that sold virtually worthless securities), and moral lapses (Enron, WorldCom, and RiteAid) while being that kind of leader.

As a result, leaders and those who followed and depended on them have often paid terrible prices (jail time, broken careers, lost jobs, and devastated savings).

Most people have had the opportunity to follow another kind of leader, one who helps them develop more than they otherwise would and who enriches their lives in many unexpected ways. After experiencing such a leader, people generally wish that this kind of constructive leadership was more available to them.

Let me give you an example of the kind of leader I mean. One of my college roommates, Jim Federico (whom I called “Fed”), had an amazing knack for meeting people who were much different from him, and he took great pleasure in their company. Just as soon as Fed met someone new, he wanted everyone he knew to meet his latest acquaintance. I was often the beneficiary of his relational largess and continue to enjoy spending time with people Fed introduced me to over 40 years ago.

You would think that after a few years of meeting great people from different backgrounds, all of Fed’s friends would have been delighted to follow his lead and reach out to others on their own. That was far from the truth because Fed was constantly expanding our horizons well beyond our comfort zones. In fact, we all resisted his desire to have us reach out as much as we could.

This stretching to get to know more and different kinds of people was very good for me, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I just knew that Fed would keep heckling, prodding, and cajoling me until I gave in and did what he wanted me to do. In a weak moment, I would eventually give in and head off with Fed to meet someone new and start another interesting relationship.

In the process, he broke me out of the comfortable intellectual cocoon of college life. I was usually meeting people who had little or nothing to do with our college such as Mike, the barber, would lecture us on how to run our lives and cut our hair for free if we couldn’t afford his services. Joe, the bartender at blue-collar Whitney’s, regaled us with funny stories that kept us humble and would lend us money whenever we were between parental checks.

Through Fed, I also met waiters who wanted to know about my family, ditch diggers who were philosophers, and caring small business proprietors who taught me about serving the public.

It was like joining an extended family filled with loving aunts, uncles, and cousins. What we had in common was our connection to Fed. He was like an ambassador who could bring peaceful relations to any two feuding nations.

When Fed’s friends and acquaintances were together and Fed wasn’t around, we would shake our heads and say things like, “That Fed is quite a guy, isn’t he?”
I wasn’t surprised when Fed later became a state senator and represented his district faithfully to make many important reforms.

I learned that his success was tied to an unusual political base that included owners of Chinese restaurants, labor leaders, municipal employees, and graduates of our college and his old high school. In a state better known for illegal payoffs than public good, he was a shining example of what a public official should do.

I was reminded of Fed recently while watching videos of Dr. Graeme Codrington, a Ph.D. graduate of Rushmore University who also serves as an associate professor at the online school. Dr. Codrington likes to ask “Why not?” when considering whether people who appear to have little in common should connect to one another.

He sees the potential for all of us to draw closer to others who aren’t like us and to accomplish more. He brings three powerful perspectives to his kind of constructive leadership:

1. He explains different generations to each another and points out what each has to gain from the others.

2. He describes how working relationships could be changed in ways that would benefit everyone and all would be treated with respect and consideration.

3. He shares his young daughter’s concerns for the environment and follows her leadership in a one-family boycott that attempts to reform company practices through e-mails and letters. In his speaking and consulting, he encourages companies’ leaders to understand that they must be concerned about more than sales and profits this quarter.

Listening to Dr. Codrington, I sensed his deep love for everyone and his instinct for finding common ground and developing the potential for helpful collaborations among those with disparate backgrounds. In the videos of his audiences, I saw a profound appreciation for his caring about them and his helpful ways of championing views that are hard for employees to bring up with bosses.

These are messages that many people are sharing in a variety of forums. What’s different about Dr. Codrington? People strongly resonate to him and his way of sharing information. Using an approach that is at once powerful and playful, he laces his presentations, books and resources with dry humor and deep insights.

His message not only is inspiring and memorable, but also has lasting influence. As examples of his appeal, Dr. Codrington is often recognized as the best speaker at a conference and was acclaimed as Speaker of the Year 2007 by the Academy for Chief Executives (UK).

His passions for helping people and doing things better are contagious. Students relate well to his vision and enthusiasm. He teaches business subjects at four different universities. Imagine how much better his students will perform as business leaders by learning from his perspective.

Why does he enjoy his work?

“The ability to interact with other cultures and learn from people around the world is a great privilege. I love that I need to keep learning, and that everything I read and learn gets immediately tested by some of the cleverest businesspeople around the world, and I get instant feedback by helping them implement — or critique — what I present to them.”

Where do his insights come from?

“A white man, born in Africa, living in London, working on every continent with people from almost every country . . . this is a recipe for a global worldview. I am tremendously grateful for my background and the experiences that have shaped me.

“I have a diverse academic background which includes my Rushmore business doctorate and four other degrees in faculties as diverse as Commerce and Sociology. A near-photographic memory allows me to speed read about 10 books a month and as many magazines a week. But, above all, I love trying to understand what makes people tick, and am fascinated by people who see the world in different ways.”

We can all learn from Fed and Dr. Codrington. The immediate benefit is that we will learn more. The lasting benefit is that we will accomplish more . . . and be more pleased because of the caring and compassion that infused our leadership activities.

What are the lessons for you?

1. Seek out people who are as little like you as possible in culture, education, age, experience, and outlook.

2. Set a good example by treating others with respect, interest, and enthusiasm.

3. Listen to and learn from other people’s perspectives. Do your best to see the world through their eyes, understanding that they feel just as “normal” as you do.

4. Do not merely treat people the way you would like to be treated — rather, spend time listening to them and understanding how they would like to be treated.

I wish you well on you journey to greater connection.

Donald W. Mitchell is a professor at Rushmore University, an online school, where he teaches how to be a constructive leader for businesses and nonprofit organizations. For more information about ways to engage in fruitful lifelong learning at Rushmore to increase your effectiveness and improve your career, visit

http://www.rushmore.edu

The Six Sigma methodology focuses on the drastic reduction of process variation and product defects. The result is processes which are very robust, which make very efficient use of resources and assets, and which result in highly efficient organizations. Achievement of Six Sigma process capability will result in processes which yield less than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Ultimate results will include reductions in Cost of Poor Quality, increases in market share, reduced cycle times and inventory levels and increased product reliability.

Successful implementation of Six Sigma is achieved through careful planning and program control, benchmarking of all processes and the application of the Roadmap. It is vital to focus on the few processes where advantage can be taken of the Leverage Effect to yield maximum results. Rigorous control and management of business metrics and designing products and processes for Six Sigma are also vital. Six Sigma is implemented by achieving total management and employee support, instituting rigorous program controls, assuring proper training and coaching, and ensuring projects are properly scoped to achieve most efficient use of resources.

A Manager is reflecting on the fact that we are in business to make money, and that we make money by satisfying the needs of our customers. Recognizing that customer focused organizations align their activities with their customers requirements, the manager notes that the needs of the customer can be defined in terms of quality, delivery and price.
Benchmarking in industry over the last decade has shown that the average company is in the range of three to four Sigma. Sadly, many of these companies are firmly set in their ways, complacent in the knowledge that they are at least as good as their competition.

Profitable and growing, Market prices declining, Competitors increasing, Have a quality assurance program, Spending 10-25% of sales dollars on repairing or reworking product before it ships, Unaware that world-class companies have similar processes that are greater than 100X more defect-free, Believe that a zero-defects goal is neither realistic nor achievable, Have 10X the number of suppliers required to run the business, 5-10% of the firm’s customers are dissatisfied with product, sales, or service and will not recommend that others purchase products or services.

History has shown that there are a number of major differences in philosophy, policies and procedures, actions, behaviors, and beliefs, between companies which are at Four Sigma capability and those which are at Six Sigma.

six sigma green belt Special offer to help you gain six sigma lean certification. http://www.greenbelt6sigma.com

Jacquelyn Donner, Master Six Sigma Black Belt

How an organization structures the people working on Six Sigma is a function of two things: first, by how the Group decides to focus its deployment (e.g., geographical considerations, degree of design, and engineering focus); second, by how the Group wants to integrate Six Sigma into its organization versus how it intends to ensure Six Sigma resources don’t get lost in concerns of “business as usual” and fighting the latest fire.

Best practices dictate that the senior manager or managers responsible for leading Six Sigma (depending on the size of the business) report to the President of a Group (this role is called a “Quality Leader” at GE and a “Champion” at the Six Sigma Academy). This is to ensure that Six Sigma is linked to the top-level issues of the business and that the entire effort is seen to have the full support of senior management. This reporting relationship also gives the Six Sigma effort the ability to rise above functional issues.

Master Black Belts report to senior management, either to the Six Sigma leadership or to the VP or General Manager level and they must be managed as a strategic group-level resource. To achieve proper leverage from these resources, and to use them to help coordinate across functional boundaries, the Master Black Belts must work at a level high enough that issues can be addressed quickly and to give them a wide “field of vision” to see critical issues in advance.

Black Belts can report to either the Master Black Belts or to line management. If they are to report to line management, it becomes even more important that management is properly trained on Six Sigma prior to launching Black Belt selection and training so that Black Belts are properly utilized. Six Sigma Green Belts and Project team members usually report to line management.

To become a Six Sigma organization, it takes more than technology, knowledge, and organization. This quantum leap in quality needs people to make it happen. Here is a brief overview of some of the key roles in our Six Sigma journey:

The Management Committee
Business unit leader and direct reports provide leadership and are actively involved with Six Sigma as they receive monthly updates on the progress of our journey towards a Six Sigma organization.

Champions
Nominated from the Line Management, Champions select Six Sigma projects in order to meet their business objectives, select and support the Black Belts to complete them, and remove the barriers obstructing the path to Six Sigma.

six sigma online Special offer to help you gain six sigma lean certification. http://www.greenbelt6sigma.com

Jacquelyn Donner, Master Six Sigma Black Belt