Defining Conflict
If there is one book that provides an overwhelming amount of concrete, immediate resources in addressing abstract concepts impacting a school staff, it is easily Garmston and Wellman's The Adaptive School. I highly recommend purchasing and reading the entire book.
In the current pressure-cooker of the educational system, conflicts quickly arise, often amplified by standards, assessing, and so on. Groups and teams cannot avoid conflict and if conflict doesn't exist, the group is not highly-functioning. There should be a balance of discomfort and comfort in the team. Garmston and Wellman (2009) present conflict differently: "...respond to conflict as trapped energy" (p. 133).
Remember that schools are non-linear, complex systems and if they are viewed in their complexity, approaching conflict changes as well. Garmston and Wellman (2009, p. 133-134) provide a listing of conflict:
Conflict can often be split into separate categories: affective and cognitive. When the conflict is personalized it is affective, which involve "antagonism" and "person-person, or group-group" (Garmston and Wellman, 2009, p. 134). These conflicts reduce energy levels of the group, prevent tasks from being completed and purposefully block all group work (p. 134). Cognitive conflict represent "healthy fights" and focus more on disagreements on ideas, approaches, or solutions. Ideas are presented to the group, separate from the person, and can be critically examined and analyzed by all individuals.
In the current pressure-cooker of the educational system, conflicts quickly arise, often amplified by standards, assessing, and so on. Groups and teams cannot avoid conflict and if conflict doesn't exist, the group is not highly-functioning. There should be a balance of discomfort and comfort in the team. Garmston and Wellman (2009) present conflict differently: "...respond to conflict as trapped energy" (p. 133).
Remember that schools are non-linear, complex systems and if they are viewed in their complexity, approaching conflict changes as well. Garmston and Wellman (2009, p. 133-134) provide a listing of conflict:
- Conflict is energy in the system, nothing more, nothing less
- Conflict is a situation where individuals in a cooperative system balance individual needs and group needs
- Conflict presents both danger and opportunity
- Conflict stems from a perceived competition for limited resources
- Conflict has different meanings to different individuals
Conflict can often be split into separate categories: affective and cognitive. When the conflict is personalized it is affective, which involve "antagonism" and "person-person, or group-group" (Garmston and Wellman, 2009, p. 134). These conflicts reduce energy levels of the group, prevent tasks from being completed and purposefully block all group work (p. 134). Cognitive conflict represent "healthy fights" and focus more on disagreements on ideas, approaches, or solutions. Ideas are presented to the group, separate from the person, and can be critically examined and analyzed by all individuals.
Addressing the Source
Garmston & Wellman (2009) Sources of Conflict
- Scarcity
- There is a belief that there is not enough time, money, personnel, resources, space, etc.
- Power
- The structure of power, authority, and control are unknown
- Change
- Changes disturb confidence, competence, and comfort
- 3 stages in changing: "endings, neutral zone, and new beginnings"
- Changes disturb confidence, competence, and comfort
- Diversity
- Differences are conflicts when unknown and unexplored
- Celebrate and spread knowledge of diversity
- Differences are conflicts when unknown and unexplored
- Civility
- Without norms, people are left to own schemas to determine proper behaviors and actions
- Emotional Needs
- When emotional needs are not addressed in problem solving, tensions breed conflict
- Listen with your heart and your eyes
- When emotional needs are not addressed in problem solving, tensions breed conflict
- Values
- Connect value of group to value and outcome of the individual
- Task Avoidance
- Endless discussion and questioning to avoid the work in changing and evolving
Norms and Conflict
Establishing group norms early in the teams development is essential. Additionally, they should not be created and forgotten. The group must continually reflect, direct, and integrate the norms so that they become normalized behaviors. A reflection period on the group's use of the norms may also prove productive in developing and advancing the group in stages. Many groups only focus on norms of specificity and schedule: when to meet, when it starts, members roles, etc. The group, as Garmston and Wellman put forth, must expand norms to include all aspects of a non-linear and dynamic team.
- Establish norms for preventing conflict
- Groups must be careful in preventing conflicts because they possibly decrease professional dialogue and discussion
- Excessively polite, avoiding issues, using humor as a distraction, emphasizing congeniality over professionalism
- Overregulation of the process increases conflict (forms, policies, detailed chains of command, etc.)
- Assign roles and responsibilities on the basis of group-definition of fairness
- Trace rumors to their source
- Utilize 7 Norms of Collaboration
- Groups must be careful in preventing conflicts because they possibly decrease professional dialogue and discussion
- Establish norms for regulating conflict
- Talk first with adversary over a third party
- Group defining of "fair fighting"
- Agreement and norming to address issues and not personalities
- Ignoring certain behaviors
- Discuss the "undiscussable"
- Address personal feelings in a timely manner
- Regulatory language for conflicts and feeling
- Establish norms for finding solutions
- Utilize critical questions in assessing outcome and situations
- What is the worst outcome of addressing this?
- What is the best outcome of addressing this?
- What are the worst and best possible outcomes of not addressing it?
- What outcome do you imagine that your adversary has?
- Would it be okay if your adversaries achieved their outcome?
- Utilize critical questions in assessing outcome and situations
Energy Traps
Garmston and Wellman (2009) state, "Energy traps establish counterproductive, recursive patterns throughout a system" (p. 138). These traps end up holding the group's energy hostage and shape the future framing of issues and activities. To escape and release this energy, one must first identify the trap. You cannot solve something you cannot name. One could free-write on the topic for set piece of time to determine their frame of the situation (Garmston & Wellman, 2009, p. 140). For more details on releasing these traps of energy, obtain and closely read The Adaptive School.
Garmston & Wellman (2009) 10 Energy Traps
Garmston & Wellman (2009) 10 Energy Traps
- Operating metaphors, "war on drugs"
- Time orientations that confuse past, present, and future
- Leaders or veterans end up confusing the current state of things and bring in energy and frames from different time periods
- Time horizons are too short or too long
- Naming processes as things
- Illusion of human separateness
- Focus on production to the detriment of production capacity
- Fixing what shows, not what is broken
- Myth that problems require solutions
- Personalization of conflict
- Being emotions rather than having emotions
Garmston, R. J., & Wellman, B. M. (2009). The adaptive school: A sourcebook for developing collaborative groups (2nd ed.). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.