Week5: Summary and Reaction of Chapter7 L@E

Strategy7: Master conflict – deal with anger in small doses, engage dissidents, and avoid needless power struggles.

Hi all. I am, as usual, giving a summary and showing my impression about Chapter7 in this post. This chapter mainly explains how to manage conflict effectively, and it is divided into 3 sections, namely, “Deal with Anger in Small Doses”, “Engage Dissidents”, and “Avoid Needless Power Struggles” as in the strategy. I am, first, making a summary on this chapter and then writing what I felt though reading it. AND, at the bottom of this post, I put an invitation to our club’s performance held on Monday (1/26), so please check it out!

“Deal with Anger in Small Doses”

Conflicts can be seen in every single organization, and it is highly likely to be hidden in today’s cooperate culture. This section, however, argues that conflicts should be solved in direct way and in small doses. This is because, first, we cannot face the problems if the conflicts is underground. Second, it is possible that the conflicts will be expressed in other ways such as sabotage. And finally, conflicts can escalate into disastrous result which nobody can control if the conflicts is not expressed.

              So how can we deal with conflicts effectively? According to the book, there are 2 steps in managing conflicts. One is understanding and internalizing conflicts, and paying attention that the conflicts do not become exclusive mutually. The other is establish an environment in which all team members are encouraged to state their opinions and to identify the problems which is should resolved easily. For the second step, the author introduces his idea of using a metaphor as well. Moreover, from the Shckleton’s examples, it will be said that allowing other members to release small stress can prevent major, serious conflicts.

“Engage Dissidents”

Oftentimes, we tend to avoid or even ignored those who irritate others or those who cause others a trouble. According to this section, however, the successful leaders act in opposite way. That is, it is better to identify the troublemakers, take an action before any trouble happens, keep them close to you, respect them as well as other members, allow them to be involved in decision making process, and refrain from slandering them and at the same time, maintain your opinions in your mind. The author suggests that leaders also need to set a limit, or in other words, leaders are not required to permit all behaviors or attitudes of the troublemakers.

“Avoid Needless Power Struggles”

We need to understand which conflicts should we face and which conflicts should not. To put it another way, we can wait to resolve conflicts until we are prepared for them. Otherwise, it can cause escalate the conflicts more. Therefore, we ought to find out whether we will face the problems or not.

Reaction

I want to express my brief impression here. I was really surprised when I read “Avoid Needless Power Struggles” section. This is because this section remind me of my experience in the high school. I, as I wrote previous posts, was a leader of the percussion part in the brass band club, and I faced some conflicts in our part. As I encountered a trouble, I tried to manage it immediately. And obviously, sometimes I found that it just escalated the problem further. Now I realized that I should have waited until I (and of course others as well) was (were) prepared for the conflict. Thus I will keep it mind that there is an option to wait a while when I confront conflicts.

Invitation

There will be Winter Live “BANDA LAMBS ~Ação~” by LAMBS on Monday (1/26)!!

Ação means action in English and we will perform various kinds of Brazilian music as well as Samba!! It starts at 19:00 at Tamoku hall (a hall in Shin-D). Although you may have mid-term papers or exams, I am so sure that you will enjoy our performance! Feel free to come :)

p.s. It is FOR FREE