This week’s lessons were designed to show us the value of expressing conflict in a group and of managing it productively. I hope you will be less fearful of disagreements and will have some tools and skills for managing conflict so the group is helped rather than hurt.
With that said, select two of the five conflict scenarios and write out scripts of how you think they would play out without thinking about conflict and being sensitive towards others. Then, discuss how you believe they could have been improved using the knowledge and tools from Chapter 9.
- A brother (or sister) is trying to talk his brother (or sister) out of marrying a particular person.
- A manufacturing manager is trying to talk the quality control manager into rejecting fewer items, while the quality control manager is trying to convince the other to pay more attention to quality.
- A supervisor is reprimanding a secretary for consistently coming to work 15 minutes late.
- A group leader is trying to motivate a group member who has been slacking off and appears unwilling to perform work for the group.
- A daughter (or son) is trying to talk a parent into letting her (or him) spend the summer traveling alone in Europe.
