Is Conflict Reducing Your Capability to Make Decisions?
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Is there a dead smelly animal in the middle of
the boardroom table that no one wants to talk about? As issues
build up and fail to get addressed, that smelly pile can continue
to grow until it becomes an unpleasant experience to attend one
of your association meetings. Under pressure, the table will ultimately
collapse – often it’s then that someone will suggest
it’s time to seek help. And, as long as the situation persists,
it distracts staff members and volunteers from the important work
they need to do to serve their members.
Having dragged a few of these dead smelly animals off of meeting
and board tables throughout my career, I like to share some ways
of keeping the number of animals to a minimum – clearly,
it’s easier to deal with one or two conflicts than it is
to deal with a multitude of them. And, dealing with difficult
situations and conflict as soon as it arises requires less effort
and cost that tackling the whole pile at once.
Understanding the elements of conflict and how consensus can
be used effectively to support decision-making is critical for
associations who don’t want to get side-tracked and perhaps,
even worse, eliminated entirely.
Conflict
Conflict is inevitable. It develops because people are different
and complex individual styles exist. Conflict will occur when
an individual or group is not obtaining what they need or want
and are seeking to serve their own self-interests. In not-for-profits,
lack of strategic management, policy and processes, and poor communications
are indicators that suggest conflict will happen.
These indicators, combined with individuals seeking power, weak
leadership and dissatisfaction with leadership and/or management
styles are the beginnings of conflict. Conflict becomes more evident
with body language, disagreements occurring regardless of the
issues, an increasing lack of respect, the withholding of information,
and lack of shared goals.
Conflict is destructive. It directs attention away from other
important activities and results in poor cooperation and polarization.
Conflict can also cause good friends to become strangers. And
last, but certainly not least, conflict costs money.
And yet there is a positive side. Conflict can be constructive
when it is addressed and results in clarification or solutions
to problems and issues. Involving people in resolving issues important
to them helps build better solutions.
Although inevitable, conflict can be minimized through evaluation
practices. Evaluation practices can provide not-for-profits with
early warning indicators, allowing them to catch potential conflict
early and reduce the risk of it expanding and causing disruption.
Some commonly used evaluation practices in the association sector
include:
- Board of Directors/Committee Performance Evaluation
- Individual Director/Committee Member Performance Evaluation
- Strategic Management Evaluation
- Best Practice Reviews
- Member Surveys
- Board Competency Evaluation
- Orientations (resulting in an understanding of the issues
of importance to, and the expectations of, new Board or Committee
members
Today’s reliance on technology for communications is also
causing conflicts: the tone in emails messages; not having the
personal voice to voice connection; information overload; and,
assumptions that members will visit the association’s website.
Board and Chief Staff Officer Conflict
Board conflict frequently relates to their key employee and leadership
partner, the Chief Staff Officer (CSO). Some examples include:
delving into administrative and operational matters (overstepping
their authority); arriving unprepared for meetings; failing to
follow through on commitments; bringing up issues at board meetings
that would be better addressed elsewhere; avoiding knowledge-based
decisions; and, not supporting the CSO in discussions with members.
In turn, the CSO can cause conflict for the board. Examples include:
treating board members differently; not providing enough information
or providing the wrong information; minimizing accountability;
incompetence or disorganization; not being tuned in to board needs;
having a hidden agenda, and, not being objective enough on board
issues.
Many of the above issues apply equally to relationships between
association committees and association staff.
There are ways to resolve conflict and processes exist that have
proven very effective. Some are more effective than others depending
on the group and issues to be resolved.
Reducing Conflict
Some suggested ways to reduce conflict are:
- Have a policy and supportive procedures to help address and
minimize conflict and stay focused on your core purpose
- Provide training to the Chair and others on how to run effective
meetings and resolve conflict
- Employ proven practices such as: not avoiding conflict and
meeting conflict head on; being honest about concerns; disagree
with ideas, not people; treat it as a shared problem; plan for
and communicate more frequently; agree to disagree; and, engage
those involved
- Seek out the root causes of conflict such as: false assumptions;
individual needs or wants not being met; and, provide information
related to the root cause of the issue
- Be prepared for the meeting, making sure it’s at a convenient
time and place. Talk directly to one another. Prepare notes
in advance. Don’t specify blame. Listen to, understand
and acknowledge. Ask, “What can we do to improve the situation
for both/all of us?” or, “What can we do to resolve
our differences?”
A tremendous amount of conflict arises during periods of change
or pending change in the association environment. If change is
seen as more acceptable, conflict will be minimized. Making change
more acceptable means ensuring it:
- Offers to solve persistent or difficult problems
- Is presented by a respected individual or group
- Indicates the benefits and they are clearly communicated
- Is compatible with accepted values
- Is easy to understand
- Is easy to implement
Understanding and addressing resistance to change in advance
will make the change more acceptable and will help reduce conflict.
Consensus
Consensus-building is a process that allows opinions to be shared.
It requires the negotiation of a solution, personal flexibility,
and a willingness to accept less than everything one might want.
Getting together to talk about the issues is important, but the
process used needs to be understood by all. The Chair or facilitator
needs to share the steps that will be followed to reach a solution
for the issue causing the conflict.
One proven process that is effective in resolving issues requires
the following steps:
1. Headline the issue to be resolved. Put it in writing so everyone
understands the issue and why it must be resolved (thereby avoiding
misinterpretation).
2. Provide background on the issue. Everyone should have all
the information available on this issue including potential impact,
causes, and limits.
3. Generate ideas to solve the issue. Hold off on discussing
and judging the ideas presented so the brainstorming can be effective.
4. Select the best idea. Provide a time period for clarification
and discussion on the ideas. Then, narrow the ideas down by assigning
a number of votes to each participant. They can democratically
apply them to the ideas listed. The idea with the most votes is
chosen.
5. Identify the benefits of the idea. List the ways the idea
contributes to resolving the issue.
6. Identify and list problems with the idea (idea-stoppers).
7. For each idea-stopper, determine if it can be overcome. If
it cannot be overcome, you may have to treat it as an issue and
start over again. If that is not successful, consider the next
best idea.
8. Accept the idea as the solution. It is important to ask everyone
to support the idea to ensure successful implementation of the
solution. If two or more members cannot give their support, put
the issue of “why not” back into the process at step
seven.
Remember, consensus does not imply or require unanimity –
it implies the achievement of a commonly held agreement.
Those who do not support the idea solution can say, “I
don’t see the need for this, but I’ll go along.”
Those with reservations can say, “I think this may be a
mistake but I can live with it.” Respecting the majority
and ones own position can be stated as, “I personally can’t
do this, but I won’t stop others from doing it.”
There are a number of barriers to consensus-building including:
trying to score points; power struggles; working with unclear
expectations; and, role conflict. Every barrier can usually be
overcome by a specific or series of corresponding actions. Some
time-tested ways to overcome barriers include:
- Work for a solution that has something positive for each
party, based on defensible criteria
- Accept the validity of “there is more than one right
way”
- Eliminate all “good guy/bad guy” preconceptions
- Commit to basic ethical principles, e.g. honesty, integrity,
fairness, respect, trust
- Demonstrate patience, appreciation and optimism
- Clarify the issues, as distinct from the facts
- Create options for consideration
- Use “time outs” to cool down, reflect, or caucus
Trying to achieve consensus is good for an organization. But
if it is simply not possible, and all participants have been heard,
have the points of difference summarized and proceed to dealing
with a motion on the issues as appropriate.
It is easy to avoid dealing with conflict in the short-term as
it makes most people feel uncomfortable. However, avoiding it,
and making decisions while conflict is in the air, has been proven
time and time again as unwise and full of risk.
To fuel your thoughts on this subject and perhaps inspire you
to develop solutions that will minimize conflict in your association
in the future, I’ll leave you with a question. Why does
an association Board with a three-year strategic plan in place
as well as one year board terms, struggle with direction and values?
This column features innovation and practical
solutions applied to trends, issues, challenges and opportunities
for the association community. Column editor Jim Pealow, MBA,
CMA, CAE is a consultant www.amces.com and the CAE Education Program
Lead Instructor/Coach for CSAE. He can be reached at jim@amces.com.
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