TM - October 2007 - (Page 41) WORKING ON CONFLICT COMPETENCE AT THE WEATHER CHANNEL Craig Runde and Tim Flanagan Headquartered in Atlanta, The Weather Channel Cos. (TWCC) provides national, regional and local weather coverage on cable, radio, the Internet and other media. In 2005, TWCC began to develop conflict competence throughout its organization. TWCC always had a culture of “nice,” which tended to lead to a general avoidance of conflict. Although this had some positive outcomes, executives wanted to make sure they were not missing any opportunities that can come from constructive conflict. They also wanted to ensure issues were being adequately debated, and decisions were being made only after sufficient vetting. “We wanted to connect the dots between our focus on a diverse workforce and innovating our future business products,” said Jan McKenzie, director of training and development. “When people with different backgrounds, who see things very differently, come together to work collaboratively to create something, conflict is inevitable. The question for us was, ‘How do we get people to engage in constructive conflict to discuss new product opportunities and options without being afraid of losing the good relationships that we foster here?’” TWCC wanted to start by getting an accurate reading on the way its employees were responding to conflict. The company joined efforts with the Eckerd College Leadership Development Institute (LDI) to administer its Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP) assessment instrument to executives, managers and all other employees. The CDP was made part of a half-day program that McKenzie and Dr. Ken Kukla, TWCC training consultant, designed and developed. In the program, participants learned some basics about the dynamics of conflict, including its inevitability, how it is triggered and how different types of behaviors can affect how conflict unfolds. The CDP then showed participants how they personally responded to conflict so they could learn areas of strength, as well as behaviors they could improve. It also showed that from a corporateculture perspective, associates understood the negative impact on their careers of demonstrating the destructive conflict behaviors, but they were not as clear on how a lack of the constructive behaviors would affect them. This employee perception of little accountability to engage in constructive conflict was keeping them from bringing some important issues to the surface. Following the initial training, a research project was started to examine what kinds of follow-up approaches would be most effective in helping make and sustain changes. Executives were divided into several groups to test the use of coaching and other techniques. TWCC and LDI are reviewing data from the study, which will be used to formulate future strategies, and TWCC is continuing to work with managers and employees to help them enhance their use of constructive conflict behaviors so they can get better results from conflict. “We know we are going to experience conflict,” McKenzie said. “The key is to deal with it effectively so we can use the energy associated with it to develop creative solutions to the business issues that we face while, at the same time, maintaining the positive working relationships that make The Weather Channel a great place to work.” talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com 41 http://www.TalentMgt.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.