Courage in the middle of Conflict

COURAGE IN THE MIDDLE OF

CONFLICTResolving conflict methodically with the

Conflict Resolution Diagram from Theory of Constraints

Ash Moran ash.moran@patchspace.co.uk PatchSpace Ltd @patchspace

THE FIVE XP VALUES

Simplicity CommunicationFeedback

Courage Respect

COURAGE

Courage is effective action in the face of fear. …

Without intending to diminish the kind of physical courage demonstrated by a soldier, it is certainly

true that people involved in software development feel fear.

~ Kent Beck

FEAR

Damage to ego

Fear

Physical harm Loss of autonomy

Isolation

++

++

Loss of security+ Loss of

effectiveness+

(not exhaustive)

COMPLEX SYSTEMS

Purchasing

Sales

Software

Investors

Finance

ITHR

Legal

Marketing

Spend less!

Spend more!

Be cautious!

Be bold!

Buy Macs!

Buy PCs!

Stop arguing and

make some f*in money!

CONFLICT

Resolve conflict

Identify conflict

Surface assumptions

Express the situation clearly

Find creative solutions

IDENTIFYING A CONFLICT

CONFLICT SCENARIO: LIMITED RESOURCES

HoldYourHand Hosting provides managed server hosting to large and small clients. Recently they’ve been suffering an

unusually large number of outages.

In a number of cases, support staff have handled follow-up calls badly and upset clients. As a reaction, many managers

have taken to jumping on issues themselves. “Managers think they know our job best!” and “Support staff are

complete idiots!” and are often heard shouted around.

Support staff are scared to speak to clients,and managers are overwhelmed with firefighting.

Who should handle the clients, support staff or managers?

EXPRESSING THE SITUATION CLEARLY

PRE-REQUISITES

Managerscall clients

Support staff call clients

REQUIREMENTS

Managerscall clients

Support staff call clients

Preserve client relationships

Use mgmt time appropriately

COMMON GOAL

Run a successful business

Managerscall clients

Support staff call clients

Preserve client relationships

Use mgmt time appropriately

THE CONFLICT

Run a successful business

Managerscall clients

Support staff call clients

Preserve client relationships

Use mgmt time appropriately

SURFACING ASSUMPTIONS

REQUIREMENT 1

Run a successful business

Preserve client relationships

We need clients to be successful

We can’t afford to lose clients

We can’t find new clients

REQUIREMENT 2

Run a successful business

Use mgmt time appropriately

Management time is scarce

Managers have a specific role to play in improving the business

If managers are distracted, the long-term health of the business is compromised

PRE-REQUISITE 1

Managerscall clients

Preserve client relationships

Managers are better at dealing with clients than support staff

Clients are going to leave if they get bad service from support staff

Support staff can’t learn to make good calls

PRE-REQUISITE 2

Support staff call clients

Use mgmt time appropriately

Managers don’t have time to make calls

Support calls are operational work, not management work

Support staff have useful knowledge about outages when making calls

THE CONFLICT

Managerscall clients

Support staff call clients

Managers and support staffcan’t both make support calls

WORD IT TO BREAK IT

REQUIREMENT 1

Run a successful business

Preserve client relationships

We need clients to be successful

We can’t afford to lose ONE SINGLE client

We can’t find ANY new clients

REQUIREMENT 2

Run a successful business

Use mgmt time appropriately

Management time is scarce

Managers have a specific role to play in improving the business

If managers are distracted AT ALL, the long-term health of the business is compromised

PRE-REQUISITE 1

Managerscall clients

Preserve client relationships

ALL managers are MUCH better at dealing with clients than support staff

ANY clients will leave if they get JUST ONE bad call from support staff

Support staff CAN’T POSSIBLY learn to make good calls

PRE-REQUISITE 2

Support staff call clients

Use mgmt time appropriately

Managers don’t have ANY time to make calls

Support calls are operational work, not management work

ONLY support staff have useful knowledge about outages when making calls

THE CONFLICT

Managerscall clients

Support staff call clients

EITHER managers OR support staffmust both make ALL support calls

CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS

REQUIREMENT 1

Run a successful business

Preserve client relationships

We need clients to be successful

We can’t afford to lose ONE SINGLE client

We can’t find ANY new clients

❌

❌

REQUIREMENT 2

Run a successful business

Use mgmt time appropriately

Management time is scarce

Managers have a specific role to play in improving the business

If managers are distracted AT ALL, the long-term health of the business is compromised

❌

PRE-REQUISITE 1

Managerscall clients

Preserve client relationships

ALL managers are MUCH better at dealing with clients than support staff

ANY clients will leave if they get JUST ONE bad call from support staff

Support staff CAN’T POSSIBLY learn to make good calls

❌

❌

❌

PRE-REQUISITE 2

Support staff call clients

Use mgmt time appropriately

Managers don’t have ANY time to make calls

Support calls are operational work, not management work

ONLY support staff have useful knowledge about outages when making calls

❌

❌

THE CONFLICT

Managerscall clients

Support staff call clients

EITHER managers OR support staffmust both make ALL support calls❌

FIND CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

PRE-REQUISITE 1

Managerscall clients

Preserve client relationships

Target management calls on the most important situations

(Do we know which these are???)

Train support staff (Who? How? When?)

PRE-REQUISITE 2

Support staff call clients

Use mgmt time appropriately

Give more information to managers before calls

(Do we have this???)

THE CONFLICT

Run a successful business

Managerscall clients

Support staff call clients

Preserve client relationships

Use mgmt time appropriately

Target management calls

Call training for staff

Highlight information

DEVELOP WIN-WIN SOLUTIONS

PRE-REQUISITE 1

Managerscall clients

Preserve client relationships

Restrict management calls to clients worth over 5% of business or with

complaints in the last 8 weeks

Allocate 2 hours per week to be spent on training calls for support staff

PRE-REQUISITE 2

Support staff call clients

Use mgmt time appropriately

Create a system for support staff to flag significant information to managers before making calls

THE CONFLICT

Run a successful business

Managerscall clients

Support staff call clients

Preserve client relationships

Use mgmt time appropriately

Target management calls

Call training for staff

Highlight information

THE CONFLICT

Run a successful business

Preserve client relationships

Use mgmt time appropriately

Target management calls

Call training for staff

Highlight information

FINAL STEP OF THE CYCLE

Have courage to commit to the solution: a solution never implemented is worse than

a solution never promised.

DISCUSSION POINT

The company experienced a period of long outages to high-profile clients. Many of the support staff were

junior members with little experience.

Was it reasonable to expect support staff to handle these calls well? What plausible scenarios might have caused this situation and in which of them is blaming

the support staff fair?

OBSTACLES TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION

SELF-INTEREST

If we resolve this fairly, I might not get what I want,

so I’ll fight for my side.

SELF-DISINTEREST

I’m not that important, and my opinion isn’t worth much,

so I’ll let the other side win.

COMPROMISE

The most important thing is to keep everyone happy, so we’ll let everyone have an equal share of what they want.

CONFUSION & TERROR

I don’t have a clue what’s going on around me any more, I don’t even want to say a word.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Logic says X; but I believe Y,

so logically: X must be wrong,

KILL IT WITH FIRE.

WORKSHOP

REFERENCES

IT’S NOT LUCKEli Goldratt

THE LOGICAL THINKING PROCESSWilliam Dettmer

THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS

HANDBOOKEdited by

James F Cox and John G Schleier