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Hi Folks,

I am facilitating a bachelor-level, adult learner program on Organization
Development and Management. I have a class of 8 (7 women, 1 man) which has
been together since November, 1997. In the curriculum, we are moving from
the "macro" (organizational) level to the "micro" (intra and interpersonal)
level and are currently looking at individuals in organizations. On Tuesday
May 19 the theme for the evening is "Interpersonal Conflict". The group has
already expressed a dislike for "made up" simulations which produce
"artificial" conflict.

I am looking for suggestions for 1 or 2 activities which work with the
conflict theme and would be "real" for the students. Any and all comments
are welcome. Thank you in advance for taking the time to both read and
respond.

David Miron
Major Professor
EMU Degree Completion Program in
Organization Development and Management
djmiron@concentric.net

I can relate to the need for REAL activities. I have been giving a
weekend workshop on dealing with difficult people for about ten years,
and during that time I have probably been through every major exercise
anyone can think of. I finally settled on drawing from the group as the
most successful way to work.

What I do is ask participants before we meet to spend time thinking about
the kind of people/characteristics they have had/are having the most
"trouble" with. We go through a couple of hours (out of 20) identifying,
describing, writing on newsprint, labeling, calling them names, etc. as
the identifying part of the task.

Then we get down to the nitty gritty.

How many of these characteristics do I have? (Some members will have
already self-consciously brought this up during the name-calling
catharsis).

What if I assumed that those people, with those characteristics, are as
interested in working harmoniously with me as I am? (To what degree AM I
interested in working harmoniously with them?)

What assumptions am I making about these others, so hard for me to deal
with? Could my assumptions be checked out?

I don't recommend the old 70s style confrontation. It seldom works
unless the people involved are okay with out-in-the-open conflict. Not
many people can handle it.

I cover the "rules" of dialogue, along with the guidelines from the
Harvard Negotiation Project (see the book GETTING TO YES and others that
came out of this project) to set up role plays for the group to do. The
class member who has a problem gets to play the part of the kind of
person they have a problem with, and someone else plays the class member.
This has worked very well for several years.

In a class as small as eight, there may be at least one person who does
not want to engage in the role play. I usually let it be voluntary, but
when they see others getting so much out of it, they finally go ahead and
take the risk. The evaluations at the end of the weekend show they get a
lot out of it.

I'd be interested in what you do, and how it comes out.

Edryce Reynolds
Tacoma, Washington



On Sun, 17 May 1998 19:05:48 -0400 David Miron <djmiron@concentric.net>
writes:
>Hi Folk to s,
>
>I am facilitating a bachelor-level, adult learner program on
>Organization
>Development and Management. I have a class of 8 (7 women, 1 man) which
>has
>been together since November, 1997. In the curriculum, we are moving
>from
>the "macro" (organizational) level to the "micro" (intra and
>interpersonal)
>level and are currently looking at individuals in organizations. On
>Tuesday
>May 19 the theme for the evening is "Interpersonal Conflict". The
>group has
>already expressed a dislike for "made up" simulations which produce
>"artificial" conflict.
>
>I am looking for suggestions for 1 or 2 activities which work with the
>conflict theme and would be "real" for the students. Any and all
>comments
>are welcome. Thank you in advance for taking the time to both read and
>respond.
>
>David Miron
>Major Professor
>EMU Degree Completion Program in
>Organization Development and Management
>djmiron@concentric.net
>

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<The group has already expressed a dislike for "made up" simulations which
produce "artificial" conflict.

Maybe they have some of their own. That would be real. Is that an option?

B. Golden

On 17 May 98 at 16:31, Edryce Reynolds wrote:

> I can relate to the need for REAL activities. I have been giving a
> weekend workshop on dealing with difficult people for about ten years,
> and during that time I have probably been through every major exercise
> anyone can think of. I finally settled on drawing from the group as the
> most successful way to work.

I've been busy finishing off our Conflict Prevention In The Workplace
book, and havn't been paying much attention to the internet. What we
do (and we insist upon this from our clients) is to solicit case
studies through a pre-course needs assessment (usually on paper). We
take those, and write case dialogue (we call the technique dialogue
analysis) which takes the place of role plays (well, formal ones).

Been doing it for 6 years....and the participants are always amazed
at how "right on" the examples are, and how relevant they are.

Generally, they work in groups in both analysing the dialogues,
critiqueing, and generating better responses...then they report and I
draw them into a kind of informal role-playing.

Since these kinds of interpersonal skills are cognitive in nature
they can be learned well via covert rehearsal techniques and covert
practice.


Robert Bacal, Inst.For Cooperative Communication, rbacal@escape.ca
Book release: May-Conflict Prevention In The Workplace-Using Cooperative Communication
Samples and info at http://www.escape.ca/~rbacal/prevent.htm
Visit our Resource Centre for articles on mgmt.,training,communication, and defusing hostility
at http://www.escape.ca/~rbacal (204) 888-9290

Edryce,

Do you break down the training into shorter skill building exercises, or
forge ahead into simulations immediately? Cheers, Conrad.
----------
> From: Edryce Reynolds <edryce@JUNO.COM>
> To: MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> Subject: Re: Exercises on Conflict/Conflict Resolution
> Date: Sunday, May 17, 1998 5:31 PM
>
> I can relate to the need for REAL activities. I have been giving a
> weekend workshop on dealing with difficult people for about ten years,
> and during that time I have probably been through every major exercise
> anyone can think of. I finally settled on drawing from the group as the
> most successful way to work.
>
> What I do is ask participants before we meet to spend time thinking about
> the kind of people/characteristics they have had/are having the most
> "trouble" with. We go through a couple of hours (out of 20) identifying,
> describing, writing on newsprint, labeling, calling them names, etc. as
> the identifying part of the task.
>
> Then we get down to the nitty gritty.
>
> How many of these characteristics do I have? (Some members will have
> already self-consciously brought this up during the name-calling
> catharsis).
>
> What if I assumed that those people, with those characteristics, are as
> interested in working harmoniously with me as I am? (To what degree AM I
> interested in working harmoniously with them?)
>
> What assumptions am I making about these others, so hard for me to deal
> with? Could my assumptions be checked out?
>
> I don't recommend the old 70s style confrontation. It seldom works
> unless the people involved are okay with out-in-the-open conflict. Not
> many people can handle it.
>
> I cover the "rules" of dialogue, along with the guidelines from the
> Harvard Negotiation Project (see the book GETTING TO YES and others that
> came out of this project) to set up role plays for the group to do. The
> class member who has a problem gets to play the part of the kind of
> person they have a problem with, and someone else plays the class member.
> This has worked very well for several years.
>
> In a class as small as eight, there may be at least one person who does
> not want to engage in the role play. I usually let it be voluntary, but
> when they see others getting so much out of it, they finally go ahead and
> take the risk. The evaluations at the end of the weekend show they get a
> lot out of it.
>
> I'd be interested in what you do, and how it comes out.
>
> Edryce Reynolds
> Tacoma, Washington
>
>
>
> On Sun, 17 May 1998 19:05:48 -0400 David Miron <djmiron@concentric.net>
> writes:
> >Hi Folk to s,
> >
> >I am facilitating a bachelor-level, adult learner program on
> >Organization
> >Development and Management. I have a class of 8 (7 women, 1 man) which
> >has
> >been together since November, 1997. In the curriculum, we are moving
> >from
> >the "macro" (organizational) level to the "micro" (intra and
> >interpersonal)
> >level and are currently looking at individuals in organizations. On
> >Tuesday
> >May 19 the theme for the evening is "Interpersonal Conflict". The
> >group has
> >already expressed a dislike for "made up" simulations which produce
> >"artificial" conflict.
> >
> >I am looking for suggestions for 1 or 2 activities which work with the
> >conflict theme and would be "real" for the students. Any and all
> >comments
> >are welcome. Thank you in advance for taking the time to both read and
> >respond.
> >
> >David Miron
> >Major Professor
> >EMU Degree Completion Program in
> >Organization Development and Management
> >djmiron@concentric.net
> >
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
> You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
> Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
> Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

To: David Miron <djmiron@concentric.net> :
From: Edryce Reynolds

I usually focus on two or more of the rules of dialogue. Which ones I
choose depends on the skill level of the group. For some, active
listening is the main skill that is needed. I am not a linear person, so
I tend to wrap it all up together, pointing out the skills when it's
"time." The other skill that seems crucial to dealing with conflict is
suspending judgment. I use a quote from Steven Covey often: "Seek first
to understand, then to be understood." The skills of inquiry come next.
All the skills involved in dialogue (a la David Bohm) get addressed
eventually.

Edryce

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]