Conflicts can be good because you get the devils advocate po

“Conflicts can be good because you get the devil’s advocate position,” says Mary Osswald, senior manager at Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu Hawaii. “Conflict usually comes because someone doesn’t want change or they don’t agree with how you’re making change. it certainly inspires better conversation and more thought whats being done and why its being done. It forces the project to evolve.”

The absence of conflict is not always a good sign, Ms. Osswald believes: “If you have a project with no conflict, you might have just as much of a leadership problem as if you were experiencing massive conflict. Ms. Osswald suspects groupthink is at work: “Its very unlikely everybody always agrees with how the project activities are progressing. If you have zero conflict, my thought is you’ve got a bunch ‘yes men’ who are keeping their mouths shut and simply doing what they think the leaders want”.

Your Task

Do you agree with Mary Osswald’s views on work-place conflict and groupthink? Look back at your teamwork experience and consider tension that arose. How were they addressed and settled? Have you worked on teams that were conflict-free? Were you ever afraid to speak up? Could negative situations have been salvaged with the tips suggested in this chapter?

Solution

yes, i agree with the statement o Osswald, when there are more than one head, then there should be have more than one idea. instead of this, if all the people knocking their heads, it means that except the leader, no one is thinking about it. and just they are there to perform their work assigned by the leader. and they never bother about the success of failure of the work. they only concern about wether they complete the work or not.

when it comes to group thinking, people should come out with different ideas, with openions and outcomes. it helps to evaluate the decision, analyse the decision, and complete understanding of the strategy and outcomes. when there are more accurate questions, more accurate answers should come out. if not, there will be some problem in the process.

if we carried tension in those conditions, it is not good. even in the times of stress also, we need to perform accurately and provide best results in the work.

but the dealing of confilct should be in a friendly manner and should restrict only to the task or work. it should not reflect on personal and team relations. what i want to say is, individual thoughts sould not be like damanging the team efforts or co-ordination in the team.

no, in the required times, i never fear to speak. at the times of required, we should speak, that is correct. in the times of maintaining silence, i will remain calm. even if i receive any negative comments, i accept them and workout towards that area.