10: Conflict & Negotiation

With many of our topics this semester, we're just scratching the surface of things that have entire courses devoted to them. For this lesson, it is especially difficult to do more than get a rudimentary mental understanding of things, as so many elements of the situation affect how you should practically handle actual conflict and negotiations in your real life. However, that's why it's important for you to think big picture and look for the common elements that always apply.

Connecting the Concepts

We discussed Leadership and Decision Making previously, and both have interesting implications for this lesson's topic, based on how you answer this question: Are the terms negotiations and conflict resolution really just types the science of persuasion in practice?

Connecting this to Leadership: Effective negotiation/conflict resolution/persuasion involves many of the same behaviors and skills we would put under the umbrella of 'leadership skills'. Back when we discussed Leadership there was a very brief mention that the most important leadership behavior/skill is listening. What I didn't focus on in that lesson, because we'd already covered it in our lesson on Communication, is that these skills are improved by practice, which means your own development as a leader is a personal process you can direct and control. This concept can be leveraged on your next Action Plan.

I'm a fan of finding excellent communication and email templates to help me when I have something difficult to send as well.
Idea from Psych of Leadership: MLK Jr. and many of our other most famous leaders and communicators' lives reveal they practiced their skills incessantly, often starting in childhood.

Connecting this to Decision Making & Motivation: As this lesson is all about influencing others to make decisions that allow us to resolve conflicts or achieve our goals (negotiation), this is an easy connection to make. However, we didn't go very deeply into cognitive biases when we looked at Decision Making in this class (we just don't have time!). There are some that are extremely important to these concepts. To make sure you're focusing properly in a persuasion situation (conflict or negotiation) you need to understand the Motivation of those involved - which you may only be able to figure out by (1) analyzing the environment for the common causes of conflict and/or (2) by listening!

Introducing Systems/Model Thinking: One of the skills employers consistently say they want in college graduates is the ability to think critically or to think strategically. In my courses I refer to this method of thinking by it's scientific/research labels - Systems and Model Thinking, so many of you may already be familiar with it. When it comes to persuasion and motivation I find thinking this way can be particularly helpful, as the block to motivating someone to do what you want is very likely external to the people involved (our textbook explores the primary causes of conflict and many could be externally caused). Using this type of thinking can help you to both diagnose the issue and to brainstorm a solution. If you'd like to read a little more about it, I put together a little primer for you (this may come in handy for your OB Consultation Project as it can be an effective method to figure out your organizational issue and all the important aspects of it you need to discuss). Here's a great resource around this: https://medium.com/disruptive-design/tools-for-systems-thinkers-systems-mapping-2db5cf30ab3a

Optional ▸ Further Exploration

I had too many links this lesson to leave them in place above.

📑 This is one of those topics that if you have to deal with it regularly I encourage you to buy a research-based guide that's relevant to you from a reputable source, like Harvard Business Review. Our library has many excellent resources as well (inc. several ebooks), here's a short list of some I recommend (cites may not be in perfect APA - they were library generated):
- 📚 HBR Listing ▶ Weiss, J. A. (2016). HBR guide to negotiating. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press.
- 📚 HBR Listing ▶ Gallo, A. (2015). HBR guide to managing conflict at work. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press.
- 📚 UA Listing ▶ Flynn, S. (2016). HBR guide to office politics. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press.
- 📚 UA E-book ▶ Ayoko, O. B., Ashkanasy, N. M., & Jehn, K. A. (2014). Handbook of conflict management research. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
- 📚 UA Listing ▶Brett, J. M. (2014). Negotiating globally: How to negotiate deals, resolve disputes, and make decisions across cultural boundaries (Third ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- 📚 UA E-book ▶ Levit, A. (2014). They don't teach corporate in college: A twenty-something's guide to the business world (3rd ed.). Pompton Plains, N.J: Career Press.
- 📚 UA Listing ▶ Duarte, N. (2012). HBR guide to persuasive presentations. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Review Press.
- 📚 UA Listing ▶ Garner, B. A. (2012). HBR guide to better business writing. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Review Press.
- 📚 UA Listing ▶ Harvard business review on communicating effectively (2011). Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Review Press.
- 📚 UA Listing ▶ Harvard business review on collaborating effectively (2011). Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Review Press.
- 📚 UA E-book ▶ Bercovitch, J., Kremeni͡uk, V. A., & Zartman, I. W. (2009). The SAGE handbook of conflict resolution. London: SAGE. doi:10.4135/9780857024701
- 📚 UA E-book ▶Furlong, G. T. (2005). The conflict resolution toolbox: Models & maps for analyzing, diagnosing, and resolving conflict. Mississauga, Ontario: J. Wiley & Sons Canada.
- 📚 UA Listing ▶ Dana, D. (2001). Conflict resolution: Mediation tools for everyday worklife. New York; NY: McGraw-Hill.
🎧 Try Harvard Business Review's IdeaCasts (you can click RSS then use Ctrl+F to search all episodes easier). For this lesson #8 Leading through Conflict and #443 How to Negotiate Better are relevant for both our OB topics and your self-management.
🎬 Watch a relevant TED Talk. For this lesson I recommend:
- Ury, W. (2010, October). "The walk from 'no' to 'yes''". [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/william_ury
- Carmerer, C. (2013, January). "When you're making a deal, what's going on in your brain?". [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/colin_camerer_neuroscience_game_theory_monkeys

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