Positive Conflict (C+) LO7728

JOHNWFIELD@aol.com
Tue, 4 Jun 1996 07:36:04 -0400

Replying to LO7715 --

Concerning "Positive Conflict", Joe says:

>It is perhaps a
>new way of looking at conflict. It is most of all an explanation of an
>intuitive and natural process that entails (1) using tensions inherent in
>most interaction; (2) stimulating tension in situations where it is
>ostensibly absent; and (3) facilitating understanding of conflict and
>tension and an acceptance that they are not only natural and likely
>inevitable, but constructive, if not essential, to human growth. I speak
>of individual learning and maturation as well as organizational and
>societal survival and health.

I remember a conversation that I had in 1978 or thereabouts with Abe Katz,
who was Director of Systems Planning in IBM Headquarters. Abe told me
that at IBM the Watsons had a corporate policy that was well conveyed and
well understood to all IBM employees. This policy could, in my opinion,
have been named "Positive Conflict", although I don't think it was.

As I recall, this is how it worked. Every IBM employee was told that
their well-being and that of the company would benefit if every idea that
ever came up was escalated to its most well-thought-through status. This
could only happen, they believed, if everyone saw it as a personal
responsibility to question carefully or even critique carefully every
idea. Also people were made to understand that any time their ideas were
so treated, it was a gesture of respect for them that the company and
others thought enough of the person to take that idea as a challenge for
improvement.

A lot of human psychology is based on what might be called "negative
surprise", where people are abruptly confronted with something that they
react negatively to. On the other hand, if you know a knuckle ball is
coming, you may not be able to hit it, but at least you won't have to
suffer from being taken down a garden path.

>From other things I know about IBM and the Watsons, I think a lot of great
insights went into the creation of that wonderful company before it
eventually fell into the hands of educated bureaucrats from business
schools who would not be above reinventing their ideas and describing them
as new.

John N. Warfield
Johnwfield@aol.com

-- 

JOHNWFIELD@aol.com

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