Centroids : Anything but an endorsement of the following article. It is fluff by way of serious writing. One wonders, if writing skill was a requisite for a university presidency, which you would suppose it is, how the author got her job. And then there is her vapid "take" on politics, strictly sophomore level. Then there is the way she handles her thesis, only one level above witless. However, her thesis is new to me, and deserves serious consideration. It directly challenges a time honored assumption, namely, that conflict is inevitably BAD. But is it ? According to McGuire, it is necessary and useful. Unfortunately, as her photo shows, she is grossly obese, noted by the one reader who made comments, and I don't know about you, but my reaction to someone who is ludicrously overweight is incredulity about anything serious he or she may say. Yet I just cannot dismiss the thesis. If you are going to do anything meaningful in life you will, 100% guaranteed, generate conflict. No way to avoid it. This being the case, questions arise which call for good answers : What skills are needed to manage conflict ? What productive paradigms can be identified for making use of conflict for good ends ? How can conflict --as anticipated reaction-- be built into a calculus of planning ? How can "fear of conflict," discussed in the article, be best dealt with ? How can both negative and positive energies generated by conflict be made best use of ? Obviously some outcomes require no conflict, sometimes conflict is intolerable. A surgeon needs to proceed on an operation without medical staff arguing A general needs support from his staff once a battle decision has been made, not bickering among senior officers. And so forth. But to focus on politics, of dominant concern here, the name of the game is endless conflict. Consensus politics is a rara avis. Each day Congress disputes just about everything. And when policy is implemented you can count on the media, or the blogosphere anyway, to criticize like crazy at every opportunity. There always are disagreements and fights. Politics is a crucible. OK, it is. But is this an evil ? Sometimes it may be, we can grant that much. But often it can be regarded as a virtue. Perhaps we can look at conflict as a problem in engineering. It is necessary in designing a space rocket to take each and every possible problem, everything that can go wrong, into account. After all, in space there are no second chances. It might be that conflict has this value here on Earth in the realm of politics. Conflict identifies everything that can go wrong. This, no question about it, does not exhaust the subject, but it is a start. For your consideration. Billy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- W Post / Sept 2, 2010 Success through conflict By : Patricia Mc Guire "Fire McGuire!"
>From the windows of Trinity's president's office I could see the placards and hear the protesters chanting. But these were no wild-eyed students. No, these were nice ladies in sensible pumps and pearls vociferously greeting Trinity's trustees as they arrived for a board meeting one morning in 1995. The protesters, several Trinity alumnae, believed that I was harming our beloved alma mater through making changes aimed at strengthening the college. The trustees did not fire me, and we persisted in enacting the changes outlined in our strategic plan. Trinity became very successful. Fifteen years later, I look back on that day as a defining moment in my leadership education: Conflict is an inevitable part of change, and learning to work with conflict is an essential skill for success. One of the great mythologies about leadership in American life is that everyone has to agree in order for the leader to achieve success. Can President Obama be successful when his approval rating has dropped below 50 percent? Of course! Even President Reagan saw some poll numbers below 40 percent. Invariably, once the leader starts making tough decisions, some people will disagree and some will start making signs demanding the leader's ouster. Fear of conflict can inhibit change. Failing to make necessary changes can be more harmful than the conflict that comes with bold decisions. President Obama is perceived as too cautious, too eager for consensus, causing him more trouble than some of his actual decisions. In higher education, where powerful interest groups abound, change often bows to the fear that somebody will be upset. "The alumnae won't like it" was one of the most paralyzing phrases I heard in my early years as Trinity's president. I insisted that Trinity needed to change, to offer more programs in business and health care, recruit more students from the Washington area, even change our name to signify our status as a university. As predicted, a chorus of opposition greeted these changes. Some graduates said they would never contribute money again. Others painted signs of protest. Conflict creates reaction, and the swing of the pendulum generates creative energy. For every critic, ten supporters came forward; for every dollar withheld in anger, thousands more emerged in support of Trinity's new directions. Over time, I learned to leverage conflict creatively with direct responses, realizing that candor wins over many skeptics. I became more confident in spelling out Trinity's competitive challenges and explaining how changes could preserve cherished traditions. For example, we enlarged Trinity's undergraduate women's college by adding Nursing, a discipline that prior generations rejected as incompatible with liberal arts. Trinity is successful today because my colleagues in leadership and I learned to work through conflict, evaluating the arguments without letting one point of view hold us back. Now I appreciate the noise outside my window: If I don't hear some noise, I'm not doing my job. Through managing conflict well, we have achieved success ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- Comments ( 1 ) I refuse to believe this big, fat tub of lard. Conflict creates reaction, and the swing of the pendulum often generates negative energy. Fear of conflict can prevent death and destruction. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
