WCM 610 IMPROVE Supplementary Document
When seeking to improve your organization’s conflict and entire situation, remember that whatever you
recommend must be genuinely doable. Remember also that conflict is complex and that conflict in an
organization is a systems-level conflict, which has numerous moving parts and individuals whose
personalities, behaviors, and actions can all have impact.
What you seek to do when you recommend Improve steps is mitigate, manage, or, ideally, resolve the
conflict.
To take a real example, in Organization B, individuals on teams who are supposed to be working on joint
projects are in conflict. A consultant is called in and, after using the D, M, and A phases of the DMAIC
process, learns that the individuals on the teams do not speak to one another except in team meetings,
in which everyone argues. No one spends any time socializing, and the individuals on the teams do not
know one another. The individuals do not work near one another and, because of how the organization
is structured, there is no opportunity for team members to spend time together.
The consultant notices that the coffee offered by the organization is poor in quality, and is a long walk
away from where the employees work. The Improve recommendations the consultant begins with for
Organization B are quite simple: Bring in catered coffee and snacks, and put these in a central location
within easy reach of workstations. Further, encourage employees to take some lengthy coffee and snack
breaks. The theoretical foundation to the consultant’s Improve recommendations was contact theory.
G. W. Allport found that when individuals get to know one another, intolerance and conflict tend to be
reduced.
Before long, employees on the different teams were running into one another in the coffee and snack
area. Because they were able to take longer breaks than before, they hung out, enjoying high-quality
coffee that was free, along with free snacks. The employees began to talk with one another, getting to
know one another outside of the contentious team meetings. The conflicts between and among team
members largely disappeared as they began to get to know and like one another as human beings. The
cost to Organization B to supply the coffee and snacks was about $15 per week.
Because each individual has primary and secondary conflict-management style preferences that are
innate, an individual’s perception of the conflict will be subjectively perceived through his or her conflict
style preference lens. This is true for those involved in the conflict as primary parties, those peripheral to
the conflict as interested secondary parties, or those who analyze or mediate the conflict as third
parties. Being alert to your own conflict-management style preference and understanding the elements
of each style is critical to understanding the individuals involved. When building a team comprised of
individuals, knowing how those individuals address conflict is a must. Only when understanding clearly
how the individuals who are involved as parties to the conflict address their conflict, can the analyst
move forward to a durable resolution.
Complete this questionnaire to learn your conflict management style: Conflict Styles Assessment.
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