Overview
Section 1
This week, Section (1), please reply to this forum and work as a team on the following steps. Please discuss and build on contributions from each member to further develop the materials.
1. Create a Needs/Fears Map (see module-1 for template) for all stakeholders in the conflict.
2. Out of Raven's six forms of power (see module-3 for descriptions), figure out which team is likely to exercise what type of power and why.
Section 2
This week, in Section( 2), you will continue to work in your private team forum to build upon the materials that you already created in Section (1)
This week, you should complete the following:
Create a Thomas Kilmann Conflict Styles Grid for this conflict:
1. Make your best guess about what conflict style each team will use, based on your understanding of the situation.
2. What is the best conflict style for you to use in this particular situation, and why?
3. In case your original style doesn't work, what would be your fall-back style, and why?
Section 3
This week section (3), you will continue preparing as a team for your upcoming negotiations.
1. Using Goldratt's Evaporating Cloud Method (see week-7 lecture and reading materials), see if your team can identify the one common issue that is at the core of this conflict.
2. Then ideating as a team, come up with one or two creative solutions that may satisfy all parties in the conflict. (The creative solutions can be based on "out of the box" thinking, however, they must be grounded in plausible reality and executable within the available situation/resources etc.)
Section (4)
This week you are going to prepare your initial proposals (or "opening bid") to solve this conflict.
First, look through all the materials that you developed in the forum for weeks section 1, 2, and 3. based on all the understanding that you have developed so far as a team, write a proposal as follows. The whole thing need not be more than 10-12 lines, keep it short, to the point and readable (see example at the bottom of the page).
1. The proposal will start with the Objective e.g.[The proposing team] proposes that [describe your proposal]
2. Then you can have up to 3 sub-bullet points, each one describing a specific aspect of the proposal and indicating what has to be done and by whom, e.g. We propose [describe one action] by [list the teams who you propose should be involved in this action], so that [describe what would be the result if this action is taken]
Here is an illustration of a proposal for the conflict discussed in week-3 where the parents were in conflict with the school for not providing sports training at school during covid, and asking for their fees back. In this case, an initial proposal from the school might look like:
The Principal of XYZ School proposes that the students be provided with alternate arrangements to get sports training while adhering to covid protocol norms as follows:
1. The school proposes that they will provide gym credits in the amount of $30 per student per month that can be used by the student at any private gym, so that they can continue their exercise regimen. The gym credits will be valid for 3 years from the date of issue.
2. The school further proposes to organize training camps and "boot camps" during the next summer break, free of charge for all students, so that they can be better prepared for the tournaments in the following school year . This assumes that the pandemic restrictions would have eased by the next Summer.
3. Having committed to the above, the school still needs to make payroll for the staff, hence the school proposes that there will be no tuition discounts provided to the parents.