Conflict Management Lessons from the Movies
An interesting movie that I saw recently was also one of the most captivating films on interpersonal conflict management. The movie is about two submarine officers in the US Navy who are faced with the task of making a critical decision (launch of a missile) with the lack of critical intelligence. the key challenges that they face are their varied backgrounds & thought process and therefore their different approaches to decision making. While the captain of the submarine has worked his way up in the Navy, believes that he is the master of the vessel and therefore has the right of having the final say in everything (whether others believe it's right or wrong), his XO ( executive officer) is an ivy league pass out who believes that the opinion of crew members are important and decisions should be made by the book. The underlying age difference & individual philosophies are also something that plays a crucial part in the story line as some of the crew members believe that age & experience of the captain makes him best suited to handle a tough decision situation whilst the XO, while having the procedural & theoretical knowledge lacks the field experience.
Most of us face similar situations in our daily work life , when we ( depending on what role we are playing i the organization , Captain, XO or a crew member) feel that we are the ones who should be calling the shots in the day to day decision making situations we face. Most of us believe , it should be done our way , either ,because we have the most industry experience or we are the senior most employee in the company or simply because we have degrees to back our point of view.
A tacit fact in the movie is that both ( captain & XO) are thinking of the good of their country & trying to act in the best interest of the Navy. Yet , they end up ensuring that the crew is forced to place their individual loyalties in either camp to ensure that they can continue to discharge their duties & roles.
How many times have we all had to choose sides of senior colleagues or select rival camps within organizations just to ensure we could continue to do our jobs or to ensure our survival in the organization? These situations can be avoided if the leaders decide to work together to resolve their differences. A big fact in interpersonal conflict is that the leaders do not tend to work with each other to ensure that their thought differences do not affect the line & staff functions. They fail to acknowledge (as in the movie) that their lack of ability to resolve their divergent viewpoints affects the command chain & therefore the organizational interest.
Towards the end, the movie also questions the root cause of the problem. was it because of the two officers & their dissimilar leadership styles or was it a much bigger issue. A systems failure or lack of protocol maybe ,on how decision situations like these should be resolved when the two senior officers have a different view on the approach.
Often , in the corporate world these protocols & clarity are missing that ensure that leaders & managers have a mechanism whereby they are forced to work in a framework to resolve their individual differences. sometimes organizations encourage these differences to foster competitiveness without having a mechanism in place to control them.
While interpersonal conflicts can't be wished away , there is a onus on business leaders to lay out clear protocols & mechanisms to ensure that the mission always takes precedence over individuals thoughts & styles and that senior managers are forced to work with each other to resolve differences in approaches thus ensuring that morale of the organization is not affected.
Most of us face similar situations in our daily work life , when we ( depending on what role we are playing i the organization , Captain, XO or a crew member) feel that we are the ones who should be calling the shots in the day to day decision making situations we face. Most of us believe , it should be done our way , either ,because we have the most industry experience or we are the senior most employee in the company or simply because we have degrees to back our point of view.
A tacit fact in the movie is that both ( captain & XO) are thinking of the good of their country & trying to act in the best interest of the Navy. Yet , they end up ensuring that the crew is forced to place their individual loyalties in either camp to ensure that they can continue to discharge their duties & roles.
How many times have we all had to choose sides of senior colleagues or select rival camps within organizations just to ensure we could continue to do our jobs or to ensure our survival in the organization? These situations can be avoided if the leaders decide to work together to resolve their differences. A big fact in interpersonal conflict is that the leaders do not tend to work with each other to ensure that their thought differences do not affect the line & staff functions. They fail to acknowledge (as in the movie) that their lack of ability to resolve their divergent viewpoints affects the command chain & therefore the organizational interest.
Towards the end, the movie also questions the root cause of the problem. was it because of the two officers & their dissimilar leadership styles or was it a much bigger issue. A systems failure or lack of protocol maybe ,on how decision situations like these should be resolved when the two senior officers have a different view on the approach.
Often , in the corporate world these protocols & clarity are missing that ensure that leaders & managers have a mechanism whereby they are forced to work in a framework to resolve their individual differences. sometimes organizations encourage these differences to foster competitiveness without having a mechanism in place to control them.
While interpersonal conflicts can't be wished away , there is a onus on business leaders to lay out clear protocols & mechanisms to ensure that the mission always takes precedence over individuals thoughts & styles and that senior managers are forced to work with each other to resolve differences in approaches thus ensuring that morale of the organization is not affected.
