Image Source: Falmouth Online University Canvass Storming is about overcoming adversity and succeeding against the odds. This week we discuss how dysfunctions within the team can lead to disagreements and ultimately impact the result of the team and the end result of the project.
The first activity is outlined below: For this activity, you are encouraged to share positive anecdotes about conflict resolution.
Think about your own experiences with conflict resolution and write a short paragraph about a time when you effectively resolved conflict (no more than 250 words). To help you structure your summary, and to ensure that others can gain insight from your experiences, consider using the 5W1H approach listed below:
Who does the anecdote involve? There is no need to include names but some information about roles and personalities would be very useful.
What was the main point of conflict?
When did the issue occur and how long did it go on for? Provide rough timeline of events.
Where were you? What was your role?
Why did the conflict arise?
How did you overcome the conflict? What tools and techniques did you apply to the situation?
I often think about my time back in senior management when I used to be a regional manager for a stocktaking company. I held the role for a few years and eventually things started to change and their expectations started changing. My boss (District manager) started becoming more demanding, telling me that certain aspects of the job came with the territory, such as working 70 hours plus a week. Eventually this became too much, working 7 days a week and always being on call, never having enough time to spend with family. It started putting a lot of stress on my marriage and so I decided to speak to HR about it, and advise them that I was stepping down. The reason for this was because this was the way the business was moving and I felt like my voice wasn't being heard. After notifying my boss that I was stepping down, things became very difficult for me. I felt that I was being targeted for putting my family first and no longer wanting to do the role. I would sometimes get told that I was the only one in my area with said experience and still needed to do certain aspects of the role. The initial occurrence happened in 2017 and went on for about a year, way too long in my opinion, but at the time it was my only source of income and needed the money to pay for the house and everything else whilst my wife stayed at home to raise the children.
Eventually I had to get ACAS involved due to the ongoing bullying nature and the demanding instances of work. There were constant phone calls guilt tripping not only me but others into work and if we were not available we were threatened with disciplinary action. This normally resulted in the business getting it's way and creating a hostile work environment. Employees hated their managers and managers hated their area managers. This was a tactic that started at the top and rained down to the lower levels. It became a very toxic place to work, was a place filled with depression and long days made only worse by not knowing what was waiting around the corner the next day.
Eventually I decided to leave and filed a report with ACAS as I was refused pay because I decided to leave. It went on for about 3 months after leaving but I eventually got my money and also won a small court case against them as over the course of this time I was keeping records of conversations, emails and had testimonials from other employees who also were facing similar issues at the same time. I received a decent amount of money as compensation for damages and was able to move onto other areas within a new company. Eventually that lead me to dislike retail and decided to change my career, which lead me to this course and game development.
Following on from the activity this week, we also have been asked to watch a video based on The Five Dysfunctions of Teams (TFDT) published in 2002 by Patrick Lencioni. After the video we were asked about our teams, and to consider how our team is shaping up in relation to these 5 stages. 1) Consider how your team is shaping up in terms of the five dysfunctions. - Personally I think our team at present is showing zero signs of these dysfunctions. I believe our regular meetings on top of our supervisor meetings are helping us stay focused and on track. Everyone is being really respectful and helpful and being considerate to everyone else's abilities and needs. I have also suggested a movie night every week where we can all socialise and talk and stay connected that way, let off steam and have a night to decompress. 2) Do you recognise any symptoms of the five dysfunctions in your team? If so, it might be time to have an honest and frank conversation with your team. If you want some support, your group supervisor is always there to help. - As mentioned above I think the team are in a really great place right now and everyone is working well. I look forward to chatting with the team and I love seeing our progress that we are making each week.
Looking at this graph above, I would say our team exhibit 6 out of the 8 traits at any given time. They are... Value of team members including all of the mutual respect that goes hand in hand. Trust. When we say we will get things done, we commit and make it happen. Commitment. We are all committed to making this game work & the vision for the game also. Communication. As mentioned above, regular team meetings on top of the supervisor meeting keep the goals and vision clear. Feedback. Talking daily on the discord server allows us to share progress and comment on each part of the progression we make, offering critical feedback and constructive criticism.
Image Source - Falmouth university Online Canvass William Whyte has stated that in regards to effective communication "it's greatest enemy, we find, is the illusion of it. We have talked enough; but we have not listened. And by not listening we have failed to concede the immense complexity of our society–and thus the great gaps between ourselves and those with whom we seek understanding.”
The final video this week discusses the literature around effective communication. After watching the video we have been asked to consider the following points.
1) What has been your team’s approach to communication?
- Our approach to communication has been very open and honest. We speak freely and openly and discuss anything that has bothered us (although nothing has bothered us yet). We have regular (non supervised meetings) to ensure we stay on task and we also use this time to prepare for what we want to show during the supervision meetings. Everything is structured and we have final comments at the end and goals that we want to achieve at the end of the conversation.
2) How does it weigh up against the advice outlined in the video?
- This weighs up pretty well. We have been fortunate enough to work together and be aware of each other in previous terms. Had we started in GDD730 like some of the new intakes, I could see why this would be more difficult and more relevant to others who have just started as a team.
3) Can you use the insight from this video to improve team communication?
- Absolutely! There is always room for improvement. I feel the best piece of advice in the video is about being open and honest. If you are struggling tell the team and solve it together. If there are members of the team who are not in agreement with certain designs, then voice their concerns. Ultimately needing their commitment is key and regardless of agreements or not, it's important to know that we still have their commitment to make it work.
Image Source - Falmouth Online University Canvass Dr Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats In team situations the decision-making process can be very challenging. Individuals quickly form unique opinions about how things should be done. Usually, this is based on their domain specific knowledge, previous experience and personality profile.
It is quite unusual for individual outlooks to culminate in a consensus of opinion. Where several solutions to a given issue are on the table, intra-team tribes begin to form, each tribe entrenched in their preferred solution (Shufutinsky, 2019).
This weeks main challenge is to trial Dr Edward de Bono's thinking hats. As a group, we have been asked to get together to discuss a given problem, applying the Thinking Hats technique. Whilst we are in the discussion, we have to make some notes:
Is this process helping you as a group? I believe the process is helping the group because it opens up communication. Looking at the 6 thinking hats, I have outlined below some of the topics that have come up in conversation. I have done this individually during our team meet ups whilst the team were unaware.
Is this conversation enabling conflict resolution? As mentioned earlier, I think we are fortunate enough to not have had any conflicts yet. The team have always been in agreement on most things and will come around quite quickly if there are any "Black Hat" thinkers in the group. As per Dr Edward de Bono's consensus, too many black hats can be a problem. The bottom line of all of this is that the team are working well and everyone is committed.
The Thinking Processes from the Theory of Constraints (TOC) first appeared in Dr. Eli Goldratt’s novel ‘It’s Not Luck’ (1994), although a preliminary sketch of the Conflict Cloud had been published in his essay “What is this thing called TOC” (1991). Since then, dozens of books and publications have become available, each of which claiming to provide further insight into the way the Tools should be used. Oded Cohen and our Founder, Dr. Domenico Lepore, dedicated nearly 40 pages of their book ‘Deming and Goldratt: the Decalogue’ (1999) to that end. Indeed, these Tools are foundational for a successful adoption of the ten step management process called “The Decalogue”.
Guiding Improvement and Change
The Thinking Process Tools were devised to sustain and focus the change process underpinned by the Process of Ongoing Improvement (POOGI) advocated by TOC. Each of the three phases of change:
What to change
What to change to
How to make the change happen
is supported and facilitated by a purposefully designed logical tool. All together, the Tools provide a very comprehensive and powerful mechanism that can ensure effective supervision and guidance over the entire change process. They also represent an ideal companion to the development of a project plan.
Managing Complexity
The Tools help the visualization (through precise verbalization) of the complex, highly nonlinear network of cause-effect relationships that mark reality, as we perceive it. Such a network maps the “conversations” that make up our cognitive horizon.
With “conversations” we mean the aggregate of some of the most relevant categories of speech we use and that define the semantic boundary of our universe.
Within the framework of Intelligent Management, these Tools play a very critical role; they enhance and fortify the faculties of the intellect that are responsible for the conception of new ideas (intuition), their full development through analysis (understanding) and the operational deployment of the actions needed to carry out the implementation of the fully analysed idea.
The TP do so by linking these faculties, hence enabling a higher level of control over the interdependencies among these faculties; the TP act as controller over the variation associated with our thought processes. Moreover, the TP help to harness the powerful forces represented by the emotions involved in the change process.
Intelligent Emotions
Emotional attributes play a role in the change process that is just as important as the purely intellect-driven one. The reason can be easily understood.
If we seek to activate in an organization a process of continuous improvement we must trigger in people the desire to continuously learn. Such a desire cannot be sustained over time purely by the rational realization that “to live is to learn”. It just does not work that way.
Moreover, learning can be very de-stabilizing on an emotional level because it continuously pushes forward the boundary of our cognition and, with it, the gap between what we know and what we feel we can do with what we know.
In order to leverage in a positive way the tension originated by this gap we must get a handle on our emotions, understand them and refine them; in other words, we must transform their potentially destructive power into a positive force that sustains change.
This is precisely the role of the Thinking Process Tools: to help us manage the blend of intellect and emotion in the change process. In this way, “change” loses the somewhat ill-defined feature of a corporate exercise and becomes that transformational effort which is at the very heart of the success of every individual and organization alike.
References:
Daft, R.L. and Lengel R.H. 1986. 'Organizational Information Requirements, Media Richness and Structural Design'. Management Science, 32(5), 554-571.
Peng, M. (2021). Guiding Your Team Through Creative Collaboration: SoundCloud. Retrieved 29 April 2021, from https://soundcloud.com/ideo_u/to-unlock-innovation-guide-your-team-through-creative-collaboration (Links to an external site.).
https://www.intelligentmanagement.ws/thinking-process-tools-for-managing-systemically/
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