Monday, April 30, 2007

Thought on Week Three

This last week's topic regarding race and gender and how it affects not only our negotiating skills but our opinion of other's negotiation skills has been baffling my mind. In a perfect world, the color of your skin and whether you are male or female should not have anything to do with conflict resolution, but it does. I think that our society as a whole has constructed these racial and gender roles and equality is promising, but I do not think that we can undo the years of destruction. I would like to think that our world can change because of the headway we have made within the past few decades, but even though it may seem on the surface things are getting better, there are constant reminders that the past affects us. I personally have experienced the glass ceiling at my prior job, and that is why I chose to move to a school district. Sorry, I needed to vent...=)

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Experimental Exercise Week Three

My partner was Anthony for this assignment and I ended up being the employee. I pleaded my case to my boss, explaining how I had been working for the company for numerous years and never received more then a 3% cost of living each year at evaluation. I mentioned that I had taken on many projects and responsibilities outside of my job description and that I should be rewarded accordingly. Since I forgot to state the percent raise that I would have liked, he offered a 6% raise and I was more then happy and accepted! =) Thanks Anthony!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Group C Exercise Update

We are well on our way to finishing our project in group C. I couldn't have asked for better teammates or more dedicated students to work with. We all work together perfectly and are communicating constantly through email. This truly is a team effort. Thanks to everyone for all the hard work! I can't wait to see the finished product...

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Emotional Intelligence Assessment

My subscale IQ score was 113 and my subscale percentile was 82. This is supposedly an emotional intelligence average. It explains that people within this range accept their ability to understand and deal with emotions, but do feel as if there is room for improvement. The more emotionally intelligent you are, the better you are able to deal with difficulties in life and move past them. It is also easier to obtain and pursue goals as well as overcome obstacles. Social interactions are seen as fulfilling and it is easier to get close with others. They do not have a problem with intimacy. They are able to empathize and are more likely to offer support to others in need.

I somewhat believe that I am emotionally intelligent. I do not mind intimacy, in fact, I crave it from others. But I do not feel like I connect with people easily. I have trust issues and therefore put up a wall and do not let a lot of people in. Maybe my answers were more ideal then realistic. It was fun taking the test though and I learned a lot about myself.

A Few Good Men

I had never seen this film but when consulting fellow family members and friends, they suggested that I see this classic movie. After seeing it, I was thankful that this assignment opened my eyes to such a great storyline, acting, and it is perfect for analysis in this class!

The first conflict lies in a soldier named Santiago that is going against the grain and considered a "screw-up" at Gitmo. This conflict led to two marines getting a "code red" order which resulted in the murder of Santiago. The whole point of this movie is to figure out whose fault it is that this marine got murdered. Is is the two marines who "went too far", or the senior officers who ordered this "code red" murder? Tom Cruise's character is somewhat of a rookie and there is conflict in his ability to get the job done as the two marines defense attorney.

The conflicts seem realistic and are portrayed in a perfect way, by making the viewer find out facts about the case as everyone else in the court is. I am not real familiar with procedures in the military, but it seems like something that could and would happen if it was given a chance.

If I were one of the two marines I would have put up more of a fight against doing the wrong thing. You have to keep in mind that I am a girl, so I do not have a problem with trying to look macho, which is more then likely a factor in this conflict as well.

I thought that Tom Cruise was the underdog and Demi Moore really knew her stuff. She seemed like she had the resources in the beginning to win the case, but Tom Cruise proved to have effective negotiation, communication, listening, and problem-solving skills which eventually won him the case. He sensed that something was not right and went with his gut feeling. He found out more then anyone else knew when he confronted Jessup on the stand.

The only issue that I was a little disappointed about in this film was the lack of order in the military and I just hoped in my heart that this would not happen in real life. If it does, I am completely disheartened because our money supports this corruptness. I am not naive to the fact that our government is corrupt, but I would hope that it would not result in the loss of someones life. I can understand the concept of friendly fire, but purposely killing someone off is different. But I think that I might have my head in the clouds...=(

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Experimental Exercise Week Two

My partner for this assignment was Traci and we came up with a hypothetical situation in the workplace that we resolved. It was actually based on a disturbance amongst an employee that was out of line and continually disturbed everyone. This employee that had the problem brought it up to the Human Resources Director and as the Director, I decided that it would be best to take action right away. We decided that it would be best for the HR Director to sit down with other employees and ask them if they had any concerns and then implement training and workshops in order to boost team morale and make sure that the employees were acting appropriately. In order to make sure that the problem didn't happen again, I also decided to write up the employee in question based on the evidence that I had that they were acting outside of company policy.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Experimental Exercise Week One

My partner for this exercise was Teresa Hardy. We had about a 20 minute call in which we started out with my problem and came to a resolution that we talked about and came up with. The conversation was easy and not strained at all. Throughout the whole conversation we actually learned a lot about each other and were able to assess each other's conflict management techniques and came up with a compromise! We worked as a team the majority of the time, but I felt like maybe I dominated the conversation in some respects because I love to talk, which is a good thing in some respects but a bad one in others. There were no barriers or distractions during the call...which was nice! After the conversation I felt as though we shared a lot in common as far as problem-solving techniques and similar experiences since we both work at a school district. It was a fun exercise...Thanks again Teresa!

Handout Assessment

Although it took a lot of time, I really enjoyed filling out the handouts from week one and assessing my different attributes.
On the personal work style, I found out that I am primarily directing. This was understandable but my first attribute to that specific question I marked as cautious. I did that because I have gone through a lot in regards to relationships in my life and I am very cautious about who and when to trust, and when to let my guard down. But, in the same token, it is addressing my personal work style and I do tend to be directing at work. So, all in all, I am in agreement with the assessment and learned a lot from it!
On my TAPT test I learned that I am Extroverted, Intuitive, a Thinker, and a Judger. This came really as no surprise to me because I could have told you this before even taking the test and my scores were never really close in each of the pairs, I tended to dominate either one side or the other. I do process a lot internally, but I tend to be extroverted in the way that I think about how I coexist in this world more so then just in my head. I have my head in the clouds and hope that everything will work out the way I want it to in the end, although I may not be looking at reality and that is why I see myself as intuitive. As I mentioned in the discussion for week one, I tend to approach situations as I am right and the other person is wrong and rarely see compromising as an option. I feel like this is a weakness and may be why I am a thinker because I see things as "black and white" or "right and wrong". I can see my judging qualities especially in my work ethic because I rarely leave anything unfinished and would rather finish a task instead of prolonging it to another day. I would say in some respects that I have procrastination problems, but I never start something and procrastinate on finishing it, I tend to procrastinate on the issue fully until the last minute. But when I start something, I always feel the need to finish it.
My NLP assessment revealed that I am kinesthetic by nature. I agree with this full-heartedly because I tend to make decisions based on what I feel, how I feel, and what emotional state I am in at the time. This category dominated over the visual and auditory aspects because I feel like it holds a special place in who I am as a person. Every one who knows me would be able to tell you the same.
On the barriers to communication, I found that there are numerous factors which act as deterrents from a fair and positive discussion. I thought up a lot of environmental barriers such as loudness, too much sun, and just the idea of being uncomfortable as a result of anything environmental. My verbal communication barriers with others is when they have an accent in which I cannot understand as well as when people use curse words frequently. These two factors tend to give me a different outlook on the person I am speaking with and result in frustration on my part. Interpersonal barriers made up the majority of the barriers that I deal with in regards to communication and included my personal beliefs, religion, politics, and morality. All of these factors are held dear to my heart and really dictate how I am going to feel on the subject. I think that this contributes to my "black and white" and "right and wrong" approach that I mentioned earlier. My assessment of my barriers really taught me that I need to be more open-minded when it comes to any communication I have with another.
My conflict management style was a Competing/Forcing Shark and my back-up style is an Accommodating Teddy Bear. This describes me in a nutshell, because I tend to put up a wall and act tough most of the time to protect myself, but in the end I think I end up being accommodating because I would rather just be happy then in conflict most of the time.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Intro

I am eager to see what I am going to learn in the conflict resolution course. I, personally, am going through a lot right now and it would be easier if I knew all of the answers (although I never believe I will)! I work full-time during the day, which is probably the case with most of us, and so I am sorry if I post to your blogs late at night on a weekday! I appreciate all of your comments and constructive criticism ahead of time and thanks for looking at my blog!