Human Conflict

Chapter 17 and 18 were full of conflict. Or how to solve conflict to be more precise. I was really interested by them because of the realization I had. The main idea for the first chapter is that most of the people know about business conflicts. These situations happen in every party that is having a development effort, and they end up having what is called a conflict-prone.

What does this means is that a business conflict is most of the time seen as a unprofessional behavior. So by having that mindset, the conflict is hidden and gets even bigger with other chatter. But the main issue here is that most system development organizations have poor conflict-resolution skills, and Tomkins has to find a way to solve this.

Two new characters are presented in the story, and the first of them talks about seeing conflict as a respectful situation to happen. There must be professionalism to solve the problem instead of hiding it. Also, the conflict must be declared up front. By doing this, everyone needs to state their win situation, so at the end there’s a balance in the solution where everyone wins.

I will be using the phrase of “Negotiation is hard; mediation is easy”. It is quite powerful when resolving problems within the company. That is why when reading these chapters I was really surprised because I have experienced some of those hidden conflicts. It is quite incorrect at the end because the more time passes, the conflict grows wider and it’s harder to resolve.

The main idea of conflict resolving skills is to explain to others that everyone is on the same side, and the problem is in the other. So the objective is that together as a team a solutions must be found to win against the conflict.

The next new character is a person which has worked in a kindergarten. Mr. T. tries to find him because of the impact that this person has on problematic teams to create a new and happy workplace feeling. The so called catalytic personality is what is being pursued in this chapter.

This personality is important and valuable on every team because it helps to passively resolve conflicts and create a more transparent feeling to help each other against problems. But most importantly, this personality is perfect for a mediator role in the team and company.

The mediator needs to listen both sides of the story, and without being biased, find the best solution to the conflict where everyone wins. It is a learnable skill that some schools use with children but can be learned anytime in someone’s life.

At the end of this chapters and interlude, we see Tompkins as a thoughtful individual, which has learned a lot throughout those months. It is a time for relaxation for him and the company.