Blog #1 10.3.08

Chapter 17: Functional Perspective & Group Decision Making

In training at Wells Fargo, one of our days of class was dedicated to problem analysis and conflict resolution. One of the more interesting things the companies Learning & Development staff had us do was answer a series of questions about survival in the wild. Questions about what to do when we encounter a bear, were to find fresh water to drink in the desert, what color berries to eat, etc.
We first answered these 30 questions independently. After we were finished, all 30 bankers were divided equally and instructed to discuss what we chose for each question, and to come up with one answer as a group. This created CONFLICT! Everyone was so dead set on their answers and how they were going to survive in the wild. Some in the group were passive about what they said, claiming that they didn’t really know and they just guest. Others in the group started explaining their credentials, like: I lived in the wild for 3 years, or, I camped with my family every summer and this is what my dad said. It was very interesting to see everyone’s approach.
At they end of the exercise we evaluated how we handled the interaction and decision making process.
I felt my group did well because I tried to lead us in the Four Functions of Effective Decision Making process from p.223.
While we started to argue and bicker like the other groups we could hear, I spoke up and explained the problem and we analyzed it as a team. “We have to come up with an answer, so lets try to find a way to do this professionally.”
Next we set a goal: “Lets have each person read the question one by one and starting from the readers left, we each get an opportunity to explain our answer in 4 sentences or less.”
After a few rounds of this, we realized that this was going to favor the group member with the best persuasion skills instead of the group member that could keep us alive in the wild. So we reevaluated our approach, and came up with an alternative.
“Okay, we will each read the questions, but we will just have a raise of hands for a vote as to which letter we want to go with. If there is a tie, we flip a coin.” The coin toss was funny based on the subject of the questions… your ability to live in the wild. But this approach proved to have a better and more efficient process to handing conflict. Less arguing and more results.
When we evaluated, the last step of the 4 part process, our results, they proved to be someone positive. Out of the 30 questions, we would have survived for about 24 of the situations. I think it proved to be a great process and the Learning and Development staff took note because they had never seen a group take that approach before. I was pretty happy and my group really appreciated how nice it was to be able to communicate effectively with each other.