Author: Shaun Coffey

Shaun Coffey is interested in future making and institutional building. He is an agricultural scientist who tries to integrate fragmented and sector-specific technical and scientific knowledge to address the wicked problems that characterise the real world.
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Tips on dealing with conflict

At some stage in our life we have to handle conflict. Within a team we can all help manage and resolve conflict among team members. The following are some useful actions you can take.

  • Check that the conflict is real. Ask those who disagree to paraphrase one another’s comments.  This may help them learn if they really understand one another.
  • If real, try to work out a compromise.  Get everyone to agree on the underlying source of conflict, then engage in give-and-take and finally agree on a solution.
  • Ask each member to list what the other side should do.  Exchange lists, select a compromise all are willing to accept, and test the compromise to see if it meshes with team goals.
  • Have the sides each write 3 to 5 questions for their opponents.  This will allow them to signal their major concerns about the other side’s position.  And the answers may lead to a compromise.
  • Coach team members to see a need for compromise. They sometimes may have to admit they’re wrong.  Help them save face by convincing them that changing a position may well show strength.
  • Respect the experts on the team.  Give their opinions more weight when the conflict involves their expertise, but don’t rule out conflicting opinions. We all need to entertain the possibility of being wrong.

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How we best learn

How do you learn? Reflection is important. And the context or setting you are in is important. Another way to think about this, is to think of yourself in a teaching situation where you are dealing with fellow adults. When would they learn best from you?

If you understand how adults learn then you can create, or seek, the right conditions for yourself to learn. Adults learn best when:

  • They feel the need to learning and to have input into what, why and how they learn. (Voluntary participation is almost always preferred to mandatory – however people do sometime perceive learning as necessary after being forced into it.)
  • Learning’s content and processes bear a perceived and meaningful relationship to past experience and experience is effectively utilised as a resource for learning. (Adult learners need to realise that their experience constitutes both a potential asset and a potential liability for learning.  Education needs to take into account previous experience – create environments in which people are free to analyse experience and try out new ways of learning.)
  • What is to be learned relates optimally to the individual’s development changes and life tasks.
  • The amount of autonomy exercised by the learner is congruent with that required by the mode and method utilised.
  • They learn in a climate that minimises anxiety and encourages freedom to experiment (collaborative learning requires a climate of mutual trust and teamwork in which people feel accepted and free to disagree and take risks.  “When people are truly treated as adults”)
  • Their learning styles are taken into account.

From  Smith R M (1983)  Learning How to Learn: Applied Theory for Adults.  Milton Keynes: The Open University  pp.47-49

See also Reflection in Action: Reflection on Action. What is it that we do when we do what we do?

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Finding great ideas (2): Boundaries of Time and Space

We don’t know where our ideas come from.

Can’t get a job finished? Or even started? Finding you thinking or writing blocked? Overwhelmed by the little things that get in the way of what you really want to do?

A solution is to create some boundaries of time and space to be creative and to get the big jobs done.

John Cleese, the British actor, often talks about creativity. Here is an excerpt from a presentation he gave in Belgium some years ago on creativity and where our ideas come from. If you only ever watch one video on management, then this should be it.

View John Cleese on where ideas come from
Continue reading “Finding great ideas (2): Boundaries of Time and Space”
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Finding Great Ideas (1)

We all have those moments when the big idea, inspiration just refuses to come. It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to solve a complex strategic problem, develop a new approach to marketing or trying to work out how to get people to work more effectively together.

Most of us tend to battle on and often find ourselves becoming tense and anxious, and staring at our computer screens or our pieces of paper filled with seemingly meaningless hieroglyphics, until our eyes glaze over and our brains shut down. Ironically most of us realise that this isn’t an effective way of dealing with the situation. Before you grind to a halt, there are some things that you can do.

For example, you could

  1. Take a walk.  Even just a a few minutes taking a stroll outside will revitalise your brain, ease your tension, and give your mind the the space for a solution to slip in.
  2. Park the issue.  Put the problem aside to be tackled at another time. Let the unconscious mind work on the problem – we often do this when we say “sleep on it.”
  3. Talk it over – with a friend, colleague, or your kids.  It’s amazing how often a fresh perspective a can lead you to a solution a problem – especially a someone who has no interest in the outcome.
  4. Explain it to someone from another field.  Go back to the basics, and explain your context in a way that others will clearly understand the problem and what you’re trying to achieve. They may or may not be able to help you, but your process of review can work wonders in putting the problem in perspective.
  5.  Let someone else solve it. Give it away.  What seems irresolvable to you may be perfectly straightforward to someone else.  Pass the problem on to a colleague – that inspired solution may be just waiting to be unleashed