Working Relationships

Principle 3. Take Time to Plan a Strategy

And Follow It Through

The bigger, nastier, and more public the controversy, the greater the pressure on a manager to resolve it quickly. But, especially in complicated high-pressure situations, it is essential to stop, think, and work out a strategy. Moving to a solution without a sound plan can delay progress and jeopardize success. A quick-fix approach is likely to produce a “Band-Aid solution” that will cover the wound temporarily but not heal it. The last thing managers who are up to their ears in problems want to hear is a suggestion that they take extra time to plan before conducting a program, but developing logical steps toward a solution will produce better results and save time in the long run.

Even in less urgent circumstances, people in an argument may fail to work out a sequence of steps to get them to their goal. Investors and planners in a large western city convened a group of leading citizens interested in developing the last large tract of available land in their downtown area. They intended to reach agreements on the type of development that should occur, but they found themselves talking about narrow issues, such as the types of roads that would be needed, before they had any idea of how the land would be used. The discussions floundered because no one proposed a process for moving the participants toward general agreements on an overall approach and then to specific components.

Although the precise form of a conflict management plan will be determined by the particular situation, a strategy should pay careful attention to the following management components:

• Finding a common definition of the problem.
• Determining mutually satisfactory procedures for carrying out a negotiation.
• Identifying the issues and interests of each of the parties.
• Developing a range of options for solving the problem.
• Agreeing on a solution.
• Deciding exactly how agreements will be implemented.

Principle 4. Progress Demands Positive

Working Relationships

Although accurate and consistent data are needed to understand complex public issues, data alone will not resolve them. Information is of little value unless people are able to use it to solve a problem. Parties in a dispute must be willing to exchange information, make agreements, and keep their word. But people who are caught up in the dynamics of conflict reach a point where they stop talking with each other. This happens both because it becomes distasteful to talk with adversaries and because communication with the other side may be viewed with suspicion by one’s own associates. Of course, when the flow of information between the parties ceases, it becomes difficult for them to clarify perceptions and transmit or receive new data needed to solve a problem. The parties cannot discuss alternatives or make adjustments. Instead, they generate information that promotes their own positions and convey it, often with irritating inaccuracies, through outside parties or the news media. When a conflict has become seriously polarized, even useful and accurate information is received with distrust and falls on deaf ears.

The destructive consequences of hostile relationships were evident when a state department of health was attempting to resolve a community water quality problem. People in the community, alarmed that their drinking water might not be safe, thought they were not getting adequate help from the state. As time went on, their alarm turned to fear. The rhetoric turned nasty, and the department of health knew it had to do something to improve its relations with the community. It assigned a young lawyer to explain the procedures the department was following to solve the problem. He assured the community that everything was under control. Unfortunately, the lawyer’s patronizing style only increased the citizens’ anger. They began to attack the lawyer and the agency, accusing them of incompetence. Finally, the lawyer was replaced by someone who was more sensitive to the concerns of the community. When the residents felt they were working with someone they could trust, they agreed to sit down with the state’s technical staff and work out solutions to the problem.

The words people use have a strong influence on their relationships. Adversaries cannot break off from fighting while they are exchanging verbal blows. People in conflicts readily agree that verbal attacks prevent progress and increase hostilities, but once they start trading insults it is hard to stop. Yet the rhetoric must cease before negotiations can begin. Sooner or later the parties must start to trust each other if commitments are to be made and solutions found.

Other sections of the book address methods for creating and preserving working relationships. The point here is that while technical information is important, equal attention must be given to human relationships.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14