Team Building and Conflict Resolution

Team Building and Conflict Resolution
Organizations with dysfunctional conflict impede productivity. Dysfunctional conflicted organizations needs team building exercises to establish a cohesive productive workforce. Conflict resolution is a driving force in creating positive results. AT&T project managers and the sales force they support encounter miscommunication and conflict. The proposed team building exercise will address communication issues and the necessary establish expectation to form a more cohesive team.
AT&T’s project management team designated to support the organizations sales force has communication issues. Communication and lack of established expectations create a hostile working arrangement. When the sales force corresponds with the project managers regarding an order for services miscommunication begins and expectation are not met. The correspondence concerning a sale does not always provide the required elements to initiate a customer service order. Tension and frictions begins to occur and the compounding issues propagate dysfunctional conflict. Dysfunctional conflict is conflict that impedes an organizations goal (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009).
The dysfunctional conflict between project managers and the sales force disrupts customer’s service orders. The disruption trickles down to the operations and installation teams. The necessary information required for issuing service orders could be misunderstood, misinterpreted, or missing elements causing delays in customer service. The conflict impacts internal and external behavior. The dysfunctional conflict demands an intervention starting with team building exercises.
Team building starts with identifying and understanding the issues that needs to be addressed. Once the issue or issues have been identified the next step is to understand both parties conflict. The best tool to resolve the conflict is listening with an open mind to hear not only the words but also the infliction of the dialect (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009). The tone in which words are delivered can give insight to the persons conflict. For example, if the delivery is hostile the emotion surrounding the conflict generates a deep strong feeling brought about by an event. However, take precautions if a person is an emotional person the tears may not come from the conflict but other problems in a person’s life. When a person is detoxing from drugs or alcohol use, he or she becomes very emotional, and it is not a reflection on anyone or about conflict. The next few exercises of team building will begin the bonding process, help team members resolve communication issues, and establish expectations.
A rule I have found helpful in resolving problems is every person who introduces a conflict must offer a solution. The problem and solution will begin dialogue among the team members. The dialogue helps the team see all angels and understand the problem. When the dialogue stops recap the alternatives and as a team develop a resolution all parties can agree upon. After all the conflicted issues are addressed and alternatives agreed upon place them aside and assign homework to the team. The homework is simple, take each conflict and the resolution home when you return to work bring back additional alternatives not discussed. Working together as a team to resolve problems helps each member understand the thought processes of the members. Understanding a person’s thought process is vital to the communication element of a team. Team building is an ongoing process compelling redundancies to maintain cohesion.
Team building exercises develop trust, appreciation for differences, and encourage camaraderie (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009). Another approach to team building establishes an environment for people to engage in conversation with others. Everyone receives a portion of a comic strip and each person must locate the person with the matching comic strip. The comic strips could be from the same series but printed different days. You want to locate the comic strip that completes your strip. The process of matching comic strips delivers an avenue for conversation, interaction, and puts a name with a face you may not have spoken with otherwise. The next event is casino night; a casino is set-up with managers as casino employees operating at each table, the employees are given $1,000 to gamble with and free drink coupons, the drinks are non-alcoholic, and the interaction with money, peers, and trust will open communications among the team members. The managers can observe employee behavior, interaction, and the communication between employees either verbal or nonverbal. The observed behavior enables the managers to enhance his or her perceived characteristics of the team and shape future team building exercises.
This exercise helps to observing team behavior and thought process by giving each member a piece of paper and a pencil. Each person is to list his or her favorite song, color, holiday and why, vacation spot and why, and car in this order. The members need to print his or her name at the top of the paper fold it in half and return the paper to the leader of the exercise. The team should form a circle, sit down, get relaxed, and wait for the leader of the exercise to pass out a fellow teammate’s paper. The team should listen to the emotional interpretation of song, color, and car making notes on the paper of how he or she interprets the meaning. The “tempo, rhythm, intensity, and pitch” and the words of the song express the feelings of a person (Cherry, 2010). The color indicates another element of a person; red = happy, yellow = anxious, blue = serenity, green = tranquility, orange = excitement, purple = wisdom and spirituality, pink = love and romance (Birren, 2010). The car evokes a mixture of feelings based on price, style, and size. After the notes are made each person should read his or her notes and the remaining questions aloud (Cherry, 2010).
The notes reflect the perception of the person who originated the initial responses. The notes should be read aloud and open up a discussion for all members to understand how each member communicates his or her feelings. Understanding how team members communicate will eliminate miscommunication issues. Additionally, the songs express the type of music enjoyed by each member and delivers insight. The car creates a sense of worth and environment a member likes to be surrounded by for security and enjoyment. The feedback to each element in this exercise opens a person’s essence or inter-thoughts and develops trust, understanding of differences, and encourages camaraderie.
The last exercise establishes expectations and understanding of each member to solidify the working relationship. Each project manager and salesperson writes down his or her list of expectation. After the list is created a discussion should occur on each expectation to clarify any possible misinterpretation. Once the discussion is complete as a team makes a new list of expectation on each item everyone can agree upon and sign his or her name at the bottom of the list. Make copies of the list and post it on the wall above his or her computer as a constant reminder of the expectations. The team should meet once a month to review the expectation and determine if any changes are necessary.
Team building and conflict resolution is not one person’s job it is an organizations job to ensure each member has a cohesive environment. Dysfunctional conflict among team members cripples an organization and the productivity. The team building exercises mentioned opens the door for communication, trust, and provides a list of expectations for team members to follow. Understanding the issues and resolving conflict in a constructive manner enriches the growth of any organization.

References
Birren, F. (2010). Color Psychology and Color Therapy, a factual study of the influence of color on human life. New York, NY.: Kessinger Publishing.
Cherry, K. (2010). The Everything Psychology Book, Explore the human psyche and understand why we do the things we do. (2 ed.). Avon, MA: Adams Media Corp.
Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (2009). Organizational Behavior. (4 ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.