A520.2.3.RB - Conflict Resolution

Use your blog to describe an example of a successful conflict resolution that you have either witnessed or participated in.
What was the conflict?
What role did you play?
Who were the other participants in the negotiation?
What was the result?

Can you see any room for improvement to how the conflict was handled.

I was managing the creation of our new video segment and we were on a very tight deadline because we had to have the five themes edited in time for a big upcoming brainstorming meeting. I was in charge of delivering on time and I had to manage team members from Politics (which I focused on), Music, Sports, and a flexible themed section. The flexible themed section writer/editor that was assigned to the project was very talented, but unfortunately was not communicating with the team; he kept changing stories and had missed a false deadline. I use false deadlines to make sure projects can be reviewed and changed if necessary. When I approached him about it, he argued that he wanted the story to be recent at the time of presentation.

I was worried about his response, but I remained steadfast in the need to complete the project sooner rather than later. I acknowledged that the deadlines were tight and explained again the reasoning and the importance of having the video ready for the meeting. I let him know that everyone else's stories would be a little aged but the point of the project was to show a new format, not recent news. He relaxed a little when he saw that I understood his anxiety. Eventually, we agreed that it would help if he was able to pick two or three of the examples he had completed for the flexible themed section, to give the staff a better understanding of what various topics could be used to fill this part of our segment. I applauded his extra work and let him know how important and time-consuming this project was.

As a result, the flexible themed section writer/editor was able to focus on the work completed and meet the deadline.

In the future, I would have approached him earlier to see why he was doing so much work after I saw the first two examples of his sub-section. I may have been able to save him some time and stress in the long run.