Leadership Problem Solving: The value of conflict

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Leadership Problem Solving The value of conflict

• 12 Angry Men New leadership views

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(No Transcript)
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Admin

• Next week?
• Homework this week
• Do in class?
• Submit through Blackboard 12 Angry Men
• Feedback from audits?

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Intro

• Who has seen the movie or the play?
• 12 Angry Men
• 12 Angry Jurors
• Who has seen the video
• 12 Angry Men Teams that dont quit
• Story background
• Jury trial, murder. Accused is a 18-yr-old
  teenager. Entire movie happens in jury debating
  room. Men debate guilt/innocence. Unanimous
  result required (else hung jury). Death
  sentence.

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Watch for

• (Take notes!)
• Leadership roles
• Coercive, Reward, Expert, Legitimate, Referent
• Key ideas (you will be told)
• Necessary conditions for these to work
• What would prevent them from working
• Applications to
• Capstone project
• Future work environment

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Show video to first break

• Meg Wheatley key ideas
• Leaders encourage inquiry
• Vigorous pursuit of decisions
• Conflict serves a healthy group process
• Benefit of varying backgrounds
• Effective decisions result from different
  perspectives
• The need to talk (stop at 5 mins)
• Taking the time to just talk
• Good, bad, conditions and principles

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Different Kind of leadership

• (break at 10 min)
• Types of leadership seen so far?
• Invite, challenge to discuss, dont settle for
  easy solution
• Avoid messiness?
• Discuss the Road to Abilene
• Principles and conditions

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Road to Abilene (groupthink)

• A story by Jerry Harvey as told by the Reverend
  John H. Nichols
• They were sitting around on the porch in Coleman,
  Texas. The temperature was 104 degrees, but the
  porch was shaded, and everyone was comfortable.
  Then, Jerry Harvey's father-in-law said, "Let's
  get in the car and go to Abilene and have dinner
  at the cafeteria." In the back of Jerry's mind a
  little voice said, "This is nuts. I don't want to
  travel 53 miles in the heat of summer in a 1958
  Buick to have dinner in a lousy cafeteria."
• But Jerry's wife said, "It sounds like a great
  idea." And Jerry heard himself saying, "Sounds
  good to me. I hope your mother wants to go."
• And Jerry's mother said, "Of course I want to
  go." Four hours and 106 miles later, they
  returned. The heat had been brutal. Perspiration
  and dust stuck to their clothing and bodies. The
  food, as Jerry guessed, had been awful.
• Later that evening Jerry said, quite dishonestly,
  "It was a great trip wasn't it." Nobody spoke.
  Finally, his mother in law said, "To tell the
  truth, I really didn't enjoy it much. I would
  rather have stayed home, and I wouldn't have gone
  at all if you hadn't pressured me into it." To
  which Jerry responded, "I didn't pressure you. I
  was happy here. I only went to make the rest of
  you happy." His wife said, "You and Dad and Mamma
  were the ones who wanted to go. I just wanted to
  make you happy." And his father in law said, "I
  never wanted to go to Abilene. I just thought you
  might be bored sitting at home with the rest of
  us."
• So, they all made a 106 mile round trip in the
  God forsaken desert under furnace- like
  conditions to eat unpalatable food in a dingy
  cafeteria, a trip nobody had been looking forward
  to and nobody wanted to take.

Thanks to http//www.google.com/search?qroadto
abileneieutf-8oeutf-8aqtrlsorg.mozillaen-
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Decision-making Environments

• (Stop at 14 min)
• Equality A lofty ideal or a useful
  problem-solving tool?
• Role of trust and negative evaluations
• Opposition
• Traditional power ploys intimidation, persuasion,
  consensus, domination, leadership challenges.

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Conflict

• (Stop at 16 min)
• Value of conflict?
• Problems with conflict?
• Trust and distrust?
• Principles?
• In teams with the same goal and a sense of
  accountability to one another conflict leads to
  seeing what others see and understanding
  differences in point of view.

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Conflict Examples

• Elder Eyring others
• Quorum 12 express strong opinions
• Discuss until unanimity
• Creating IT curriculum
• Diverse group
• Strong opinions
• Hundreds of hours in meetings
• Unanimity always achieved
• Corporate management retreats exercises?
• Good to Great humility and ambition
• Roles of respect, trust, etc.
• HCI A profound respect for people who will
  interact with your systems
• DC 1810 Worth of souls is great in the sight
  of God.

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Conflict examples (continued)

• Conflict avoidance leads to bad decisions
• Movie Into the woods The witch accuses, Youre
  not good, youre not bad, youre just nice
• She is not a good example, but the point is valid
  
• Rev 315,16 Apostle John to the Laodiceans
• I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor
  hot I would thou wert cold or hot. So then
  because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor
  hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

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Alternative Perspectives

• (stop at 22 min)
• Unique contributions of different perspective
• I think I know this man better than anyone here
  
• Anyone who has ever used a switchblade would
  never use it any other way
• This democracy is a remarkable thing
• What type of leadership is this? (expert)
• Has anyone experienced discrimination against
  themselves
• Were you, just being sensitive, did not apply
  to you

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Can you do this?

• Commitment to resolve (locked room)
• It must be an important decision
• Teams that cant quit!
• Other examples? Marriage, families, own business,
  others?
• A different kind of leadership - referent
• Invite dialogue
• Refuse to impose your own will
• Create trust
• Resist easy decisions
• Groupthink, get along, get something (anything!)
  done
• Diversity
• Requires trust.
• Speak freely without criticism. You never know
  who will have the important or valuable piece of
  information

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Homework

• Short discussion (1/4-1/2 page?) - Capstone
• What positive role can conflict play your
  capstone project?
• May involve any or all of team, coach, customer,
  users
• Be as specific as possible
• What must be done to keep conflict positive
• Short discussion (1/4-1/2 page?) - Work
• What positive role can conflict play your
  professional career?
• Be as specific as possible
• How will you ensure that it is positive