6 minute read
PERSPECTIVE MANAGEMENT
Want to solve conflict in your organization? Try a new perspective on for size.
By / Deirdre McCarthy Gallagher
The project was behind schedule, and the Local’s business manager had heard reports that the contractor was pushing his union team to move at a pace that was unrealistic and unsafe. One afternoon, a union member was rushing from one part of the site to another and dropped some tools. While he was picking them up, the contractor walked over and started berating the worker at the top of his lungs. The business manager stepped between the two and said, very loudly, “That’s enough! This is unacceptable. I won’t let you treat my team that way!” The contractor curled his fists and decided it wasn’t the right time to explain that the same worker had dropped tools twice already that same day and had been told to slow down and be more careful. Workers separated the contractor and the business manager, but their suppressed anger cast a chill over the worksite.
Conflict in the workplace is often a matter of perspective. In the face of difficulty or challenge, we first become aware that something is happening through our senses, hearing something that someone says or seeing something that someone does. Because our work environments are complex, with competing demands, we develop shortcuts to make sense of what we see. Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking Fast and Slow, talks about this in terms of fast and slow thinking. Fast thinking operates automatically and quickly with little effort and no sense of voluntary control—finding the sum of 2+2 or riding a bicycle, for example. Slow thinking, on the other hand, requires us to devote attention and mental energy to the task at hand—as we well know, filling out a tax form or parallel parking are slow thinking tasks. Fast thinking is continuously at work, generating impressions, intuitions, intentions, and feelings, and it works well most of the time.
But not always. Our fast-thinking brain is a facile and creative storyteller that interprets and gives weight to information in a selective and biased way—that is, to support a pre-existing narrative it has constructed. Perceptions of these stories are powerful but typically inaccurate because we highlight information that supports our prior beliefs and filter out conflicting information. The business manager heard that the contractor was rushing his crew, so when the business manager saw the contractor yelling at a worker, clearly (to him), this was proof that the contractor was pushing the crew too hard.
Perception may prevent us from hearing or processing information from someone we perceive as the “other side”. This data gap leads us down a path riddled with assumptions. In the absence of information, we jump to conclusions. We quickly attribute a motive to the other person’s actions, an attribution that is often incorrect because it is impacted by such factors as the degree of control we believe the other person had over their actions, whether we think that their actions were intentional, and our history with and trust of the other person. This let-assumptions-fill-in-the-context dynamic is further complicated by a tendency to assume the “other side’s” bad action is reflective of their bad character. All of this is to say: we may descend into conflict management behaviors that are more destructive than constructive. And that’s how small, nipin-the-bud problems turn into massive and expensive ones.
So how do we get back on track? What can an individual do?
• We create space to cool down. This may take the form of a deep breath, going for a walk, or, as the adage goes, counting to 10 when angry and, if very angry, counting to 100. William Ury, author of Getting Past No: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, recommends suspending your reaction to regain your mental balance by imagining yourself going to a balcony and looking down on the conflict. In going to the balcony, you are taking a step back to gain perspective and stem an instinctual reaction that may not be positive.
• We reflect on what is happening by considering our perspective and emotions and the other person’s perspective and emotions—as difficult as that may be. Using the tool of cognitive reappraisal, a process that involves reexamining the facts underlying a conflict to see if there are alternative, non-threatening explanations for it, gives us a means of cooling ourselves down to inquire further and find out what is occurring.
• We keep our eyes on what we want to achieve. In a workplace or organization, we are thinking about the big picture. Who else is involved? Are there any organizational systems or cultural factors that are contributing to the conflict?
With that in mind, let’s think back to the conflict between the business manager and the contractor. As they viewed the same exchange, they saw different things based on their different perspectives, which was not a signal to dig in their heels; but rather, that there was additional information to gather and communication to explore. We come to the workplace each day with tasks to complete and jobs to do. Taking a step back to gain perspective—and understand the perspectives of others— can help to break down the obstacles to doing just that.
To learn more about recognizing the role of perspective in conflict resolution and to gain practical strategies for solving conflict in your organization, check Diedre Gallagher’s talk at the 2022 Partners in Progress Conference, March 1-2, 2022 in Las Vegas. Register today at pinp.org/conferences/2022pinp ▪ Deirdre McCarthy Gallagher, Esq., is highly regarded for her ability to resolve both two-party and multiparty disputes in a range of areas, including employment to organizational matters. With over 20 years of experience as a mediator, facilitator, and ADR consultant, Ms. McCarthy Gallagher is known for her persistence and patience in bringing parties together in the most intractable of cases.
