A632.9.3.RB-Role of Emotion in Decision Making

One of the many facets of leadership is our Emotional Intelligence, which in management of resources and people is as important as your intellectual intelligence in terms of making level- headed and thought-out decisions.  Prof. Baba Shiv of Stanford University explains that emotion is decision-making.  (Shiv, B., 2011) Emotion plays a crucial role in the decision-making process by allowing us to resolve decision conflict. Our emotional system allows us to reliably take a particular course of action and emerge feeling confident about the decisions we have made. It is critical to evoke emotion from the decision-making process because of the virtues that accrue from that. Those virtues include passion that is persuasive, confidence that is contagious, and extraction of utility from the experience. (Shiv, B., 2011) Therefore in Prof. Shiv’s opinion; confidence and over-confidence in decision-making has been vastly underrated.  That being said, I want to share two examples demonstrating the difference confidence can make to reinforce or detriment my own decisions in my past.

Positive Confidence:

  

One great example in the Positive Role of Confidence is in relationship to my military training and subsequent enlistment period in the Air Force Special Operations Arena.  Successes or failures in the battlefield can be linked directly to our preparation and training, and I can remember one mission that we had rehearsed and practice for a few weeks prior to the go ahead.  We planned out escape routes and secondary contingency plans to ensure that we anticipated the myriad of possibilities or changes that affect the fluidity in a battlefield environment.  When we did execute the mission a few weeks later, we did have some setbacks, but because we trained with these in mind, our confidence was unchallenged, and we charged through successfully making each choice at each pivotal moment.  Each successful phase was attacked with more charge and more confidence as we seem to be unstoppable and "in the zone" as we liked to put it.  I remember reflecting on the fact that each discussion or choice we faced was met unchallenged, and without harm.  I remember the emotional elation and joy of returning to base without any casualties on our team, nor any loss of our assigned objectives we set out to accomplish. 

In fact successful missions were often met with emotional reactions, and in terms of this mission my first one was a joy in not getting shot or dying in the field.  I also felt relief and pride at the same time.  Relief of not dying or getting shot, and pride knowing the successful missions our teams completed saved lives, and led to positive changes to these Middle-Eastern Countries we operated in.  One fourth emotional reaction to the decision to be in a combat profession, and to make these choices to go into harm's way; I experienced many years later, when I was in dealing with PTSD related to my combat experiences, and dealing with fear and anxieties that came with it.  I learned that even when the events in our lives are far over, we can still have emotional connections that affect our current mental states.

Negative Confidence:

In terms of an example of a bad decision where confidence was put into question, I can relate to one of my recent automobile purchases where my wife Tina cautioned me from rushing into the sale too quickly, in fact she as against the purchased, but because it would be my car, gave in to my own emotional roller coaster of wanting a new car, and my new car became a serious of visits to the Dealership to fix and repair many items that should have been red flags to me not buying the car in the first place.  The impulsive personality that I have found dominates some of my financial decisions, often sees past my own hesitations and mental cues in my head that express concern.  I get it in my head that I want something, and I throw caution into to wind to get it.  These types of choices are often reacted too with my own mental thought of I won't do that again, but really, we should be saying "I am glad I didn't choose that car" instead of dealing with the regrets of the purchase.  It's funny sometimes when I reflect on the emotional reactions to this decision, and many more like it.  We often feel stupid, hurt, and embarrassed when we find out the true extent of our decisions which were warned against by our wives, parents, or close friends. 

I remember my own car sales days when I was younger, and the Dealership trainer teaching us that the typical car buyer is subjected to 10 or more emotional stages when buying a car.  My own experiences started when I was much younger as an Airman in the Air Force, suddenly faced with the ability to go out and buy whatever car I wanted, which often meant whatever car I did not need or could not afford.  We replace this bad decision making process as we get older with cost cutting strategies that we rationalize our purchase with statements such as " I can do away with the Leather Seating or the Satellite Radio - which save a few dollars from our payments, but we still buy more car than we need, and we use our cutting frills as the rational for our purchase.  Now that I am much older, and supposedly wiser; I find myself just saying I can afford it now, and I want it and I deserve it, because I have worked so hard to get here.  Of course reality sets in to replace my new Porsche 911 with a four door family car that Tina "is" in agreement with - and so are my girls.

I find myself sharing the sentiments of Professor Baba Shiv; which are also echoed in our textbook, where according to Hoch and Kunreuther (2001) “There is now a growing body of evidence that affect and emotions play and important role in people’s decision processes” (p. 269). I am always looking for ways to be more confident in my decision-making process. I will start looking to and learning from the virtues of emotion.  

It is also funny, as I also found this theme across our discussion board this week, as many of my team cited examples of informational cascades linked to excessive passions or confidence, and while this is seen as positive, we can find examples of jumping on the band wagon that result in letting our emotion attachments get the better of our rational thought process that results in a financial loss or emotional upset. 

In fact, sometimes our emotional involvements can backfire on our good intentions in terms of reaction with passion and confidence, which directly ties into our recent readings and discussion about information cascades.  For good or bad, a very confident person can cause an information cascade where people are so struck by his confidence that they go right along with what he says or does without conducting their own research to make decisions.  This ability can be very beneficial for someone who is looking to get people onboard with an idea, like investment opportunities.

References:

Goleman, D. (2013). Focus, The Hidden Driver of Excellence. New York: Harper Collins.

Hoch, S.J. & Kunreuther H.C. (2001). Wharton on making decisions. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley & Sons.

Shiv, B. (2011). Brain research at Stanford: Decision making. Retrieved from YouTube.com: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRKfl4owWKc

A632.8.3.RB - Reflections on the Cynefin Framework

We are faced with difficult situations each and every day. Some of these situations are more stressful than others and some start out very stressful and then get easier and easier. This process of moving from a stressful situation to a one that is more in control is also addressed in the Cynefin framework (Snowden & Boone, 2007). Cynefin’s Framework gives us a representation of the contextual characteristics of simple, complicate, complex, and chaotic issues we can expect to face as leaders.  These identified characteristics can be used to formulate informed decisions.  Snowden and Boone (2007) wrote “Using the Cynefin framework can help executives sense which context they are in so that they can not only make better decisions but also avoid the problems that arise when their preferred management style causes them to make mistakes” (para. 6).  As leaders we will all make mistakes.  This framework can be utilized to mitigate the consequences of bad choices.

In my daily work-world here at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, my day to day work is a flip of simple decisions that follow our process and procedures, and then complex decisions that required higher levels of critical thinking and involved support teams that help with the legal, regulatory, and contractual aspects of the contracts I create.   Most everything I do is pretty much a “cause and effect” effort.  Meaning that everything is usually straightforward and manageable.  If something does get bogged down in the weeds, I usually know what I need to do to bring things back into balance.  In fact, most of my in office work is routine with status calls, Purchase Order maintenance and updates, and then my onsite supplier interactions require me to wear the complex to chaotic hat to deep dive and investigate the work and efforts of my supplier.  During our fact finds, we are involved in question and answer sessions, with intense follow-up to get the real facts from the given ones. My work days at a supplier are a lesson in adaptability and control.

Another area in which I see the complexity of simple decisions intermingled with complex ones is in the decisions Tina and I make in regards to our two girls.  We make simple choices with them for meeting their needs or giving them permissions down to complex and life changing decisions, especially recently in dealing with our daughters type one diabetes.  In fact medical decisions have the greatest cause and effect outcomes and require outside assistance at times from the expertise of the medical staff at the local children’s hospital, as we come to grips with the inherent limitations we must make in our daughters new lifestyle.

These are just two examples of how situations can move through the different stages of the Cynefin framework. The big difference that I have now is knowing about these stages and how to react more appropriately in the situations.

During this week’s Discussion Boards, I found myself agreeing with both Ryan Kemp and Meghan in terms of enjoying working in the environment of the complex context because I think that operating in the unknown helps to build more knowledge through continued inquiries and it requires an even more in-depth process of critical thought, based on reflection and analysis.

The five takeaways from the Cynefin framework that I will incorporate into my decision making is the ability to step back and analyze the situation critically. I will then be able to quickly decide which context the situation resembles the most. I will have a better idea of how to respond and in what order. Some situations require action first like chaos, while others require you to sense and analyze first. I will have a better idea of what a good starting point will be and how to analyze the situation better. I think will be another valuable tool from this program that I will be able to apply in my life both professionally and personally.

In summary, I am finding that the Cynefin Framework allows the decision-maker the ability to "float" from one quadrant to the other depending on how the external stimuli are affecting the variables of the decision process.  What might start as a simple decision, can transgress into a complex one as the problem or issue takes ebbs or turns based on adaptability to the situation.  Even a decision that seems go be indicative of the Chaotic Quadrant, can take on cause and effect characteristics that move it to one of the other three quadrants and their reciprocal frameworks.

References

Snowden, D. J., & Boone, M. E. (2007). A Leader's Framework for Decision Making. Retrieved    July 20, 2016,         from https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making

A632.8.4.RB - Cynefin Framework Reflection

We have spent a lot of time this week talking about the Cynefin framework as a decision-making tool, and how the framework sorts issues facing leaders into five contexts by the nature of the relationship is  between cause and effect.  Four of these contexts include simple, complicated, complex and chaotic (Snowden & Boone, 2007).  

Using the framework of the Cynefin’s descriptions of the four quadrants of the framework, two represent chaos and a need to think outside the box in situations in which you are not able to depend on a universe of stability and order.  Stability and order are related to simple and complicated contexts whereas chaotic and complex contexts are unordered and the way forward must be based on emerging patterns rather than right answers based on facts (Watkins, ND).  Effective leaders must learn to shift their decision-making styles to match changing business environments (Snowden & Boone, 2007). In this way, they are able to appropriately respond to differing situations in decision making.

I recently made a decision that on the surface could be construed as other than simple and complicated.  My supplier, who I  contracted with Lockheed Martin to build a portion of  one of the bombs which are a weapon carried on the F-35 aircraft, advised my company wanted to add  a catastrophic loss clause to our contract. This clause would not penalize their company in the case of a weapon launch failure. Normally, the customer a severe penalty and monetary fine if their weapon fails to launch and it was determined that their company was at fault.  

Because Lockheed Martin is driven by metrics for quality on the F-35 program  and we have established risk procedures in place to account for the potential of such a penalty, it was a simple yet complicated decision if we would allow for this exclusion of fault to their design. Although my company agreed to the clause (simple), we required negotiations with the customer of which we would agree to a cap a penalty amount per weapon delivered by way of a fine (complicated) and we would assume the majority of the fine and responsibility if the customer  were found to be at fault.  Based on similar negotiations and established company policies, we were able to agree on a cap on the penalty  we would charge them and predefined a fine that was reasonable to replace the cost of the fail weapon.   Although a complicated negotiation, the established history provided us with a simple context solution in making our decision. 

Three years ago a Government customer approached five major aerospace companies and advised us we needed to find a way to work together as one team.  Lockheed Martin was one of the companies and the other four were our most fierce competitors.  The customer advised us they did not have the expertise within the Government to continue to satisfactorily define the ongoing, ever-changing requirements for our F-35 sustainment program going forward.  The customer was ultimately asking us to find a way to form one team with our companies’ represented and provide the most talented subject matter experts to fill the gaps the Government experienced in keeping the maintenance of the aircraft across our country as a shared effort. This approach was unprecedented and we were immediately thrown into a complex and chaotic context. There were no historic decisions or situations on which we could base our approach on. Our company vice presidents reached out to our company to other business units and none had experienced such a challenge; neither had the other companies.  How could we form a team of one out of the five major companies and keep the customer and the country first ahead of each companies’ agenda?  Through consulting outside experts as well as forming a team of legal, contracts and technical experts we were able to pitch the customer an approach in which we could protect each companies’ proprietary information through information technology firewalls and require employees to sign a non-disclosure not to use what they learned from other companies to use against the other.  Additionally, the companies would have an equal work share and a number of employees working the program to ensure there was no favoritism of one company’s approach over another.  This contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and is now in its third year of success.  The complexity of the situation and decisions made helped current and future leaders make sense of advanced technology and cultural change while dealing with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts (Snowden & Boone, 2007).  

I find it makes perfect sense to change our behavior and approach, as a leader, depending on the situation.  I can say that a couple of years ago I classified myself as a particular type of leader without the realization that to be an effective one, I would need to not only constantly look for ways I can improve but also consider I must change my approach in decision making depending on the situation I face. The Cynefin framework offers a simple yet complex framework to help leaders adjust to changing environments and situations in decision making.

The simplicity of the Cynefin Model as a Decision-Making tool is in its' ability to flow from one quandrant to another based on the circumstances of the variables coming into play with the process.  Must of our discussions this week in our DQ's illustrated the share complexity our teams experienced in their workplace and how simple decisions could snowball into very complex ones, rapidly.  The nature of change is adaptability, and this tool seems to cover those needs. 



References: 

Snowden, D., & Boone, M. (2007). A Leader's Framework for Decision Making.Harvard Business Review, 66-76.

Watkins, D. (ND). Cynefin Framework and Decision Making. PowerPoin

A632.7.4.RB - Collaborative Decision-Making

Collaborative Decision-Making on the Job...

As I was reflecting on my own experiences with collaboration and getting to resolution in the process of decision-making, I am

reminded that hardly ever do our decisions affect only ourselves. We are asked to consider the importance of getting other stakeholders involved; how can they help us make a better decision for all?  We are to detail a specific situation where we are faced with the decision, describe the process you went through and the outcome you were seeking, then identify 5 ways stakeholder involvement can help you make better decisions.  We answer if we achieved your objective?  Looking back at the decision made and its consequence, was there anyone else that would have added value to the process? Identify 3 ways you may use this learning experience to make better decisions in the future?

All of us make decisions every day, and in my role as a buyer for the F-35 production program, my decision also have financial ripples to the overall cost of our program.  My decisions that I make professionally affect more than just my normal scope of responsibilities, as they impact our budget, affect our suppliers and our relationship with our suppliers, and they even contribute to our quarterly earnings or losses.  Some are small, routine and take place with barely a notice by anyone.  Other decisions can have disastrous effects on our program, or to small groups or larger groups – the point being that professional decisions can impact the organization beyond the limitations of our views or understandings.  Some decisions are so profound they must be made in a shroud of secrecy for fear the decision will be derailed before it has a chance to be executed at all.

Having said this, one decision I have been working on for about 10 months is reaching a Master Repairs Agreement to implement cost savings strategies as well as improve my systems overall process time to ship out my part and have it diagnosed, repaired, and returned.  As part of the process, I have gone back to work with my sustainment team to analyze and compile a financial history of our repairs based on the levels of effort completed, and the averages by specific component parts that were repaired through the process.  I work with our quality team members, our engineers, and even reached out to our supplier to make sure I had all of the necessary data to formulate my proposed values and needs, as I was going to forecast the next three years of anticipated repairs. 

I have also collaborated with our contracting team, to ensure my Master Repairs Agreement flowed down the required contractual language per the latest Corporate Documentations, Quality Requirements, and even rules set forth by the Federal Government.  This process to build this contract should end this year, but I have been working this effort since April of 2015 – coordinating between various teams and team members across Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, my supplier.

My contract is currently under the Price Cost Analysis stage, getting even deeper cost comparison and analysis, then my counterparts on the Sustainment Team and my production teams will hammer out our pre-Negotiation steps to ensure our pricing strategies are in line with our desired outcome, while also taking into consideration the required outcomes of our supplier and partner in this process.

Some of the successes we have already seen have already led to improvement to our repairs process, and more so as we have been clearly defining the levels of work, and their approximate cost.  We have also been able to collectively work together as a team, even though both our companies are competitors outside of this repairs contract.  As I was thinking about this, I reflected on how this echoes our discussions this past week, on creating a vision of what resolution will begin to look like.  Levine (2009) presents the first two questions about: Does the preliminary vision fit everyone’s view of the outcome, and does the preliminary vision take care of all specific concerns in the situation? In this case, both of our companies were seeking alignment to work towards defining our resolution in the best interest to both teams.  We were aligning our efforts, through our discussions and negotiations to ensure both sides would gain the win and see the benefits affecting both teams and their metrics.

At the same time, I have been engaging with our Senior Leadership to ensure we follow the correct processes to ensure we go through all of the contractual obligations needed to get final approval.  This meant also working to ensure we have not missed something along the way, as well as finding ways to improve existing positions, aside from getting approval for our repairs process going forward.  There is the potential to have our efforts delayed if we both of our team do not also work to “massage management” in the new processes by stressing the cost savings and the benefits to both our companies.

Seeking the input from Senior Executives on the repairs responsibilities is crucial to the next phase where we build Lay-in Materials contracts, to support the repairs process – and these are $10 Million Plus efforts, which only validates preparing the foundation of the master contract right now.  The roles and responsibilities, also known as missions and functions helps create the foundation for this entire process.  But, we did not only use our own personnel, we got the organizational alignments from our business partnership at Northrop Grumman and sought the buy in of their Senior Management as well. 

Finally, today we had a meeting that brought the key players together and we have set up a series of meetings to take us through the rest of the process.  This establishes milestones and sets us up to work towards signing our contracts, and pushing our partnership to new levels of agreement.

This road has not been without its challenges, and road blocks.  The problems started with the poor implementation of a plan of action and levels of effort needed to ensure each repair met contractual guidelines, as well as cost savings.  The process has been painful, but there have been important lessons learned along the way.  One such lesson I have learned is in the importance of being able to ask for help when I became overwhelmed by my work load and these preparations – being able to miss shortfalls and setbacks with fresh eyes and ears, and hands is the opportunity for change…and that does not mean you don’t think it through – you share it more to get the best solutions from different experiences collectively.  Decisions about processes need to be taken into consideration and identify who will do what.  This was not done effectively earlier on during the process and has had negative ramifications that almost stalled and ended our efforts.

When writing any type of repairs contract, while it is a good idea to use examples from other systems that have worked across our organization, the government’s Office of Personnel Management have guidelines as well for company working towards building these types of contracts, as we must also protect their interest as well.

Another important lesson I have learned is in the need to include more people as internal stakeholders in the process.  Having more than only our customers buy-in helps leverage our efforts with support across our program.  Seeking stakeholders for their agreement to fund the project has proven crucial to getting needed executive decision makers on board.  We were given several tasks to complete by the leadership in our headquarters and completing those tasks, much of the work was “greased” through the process.  Finally, finding the experts in the areas we need to have help us build the final package and move it through the approval process has been very enlightening.  Our projection is we will have our contract signed in the 2 to 3 months.

References:

Goleman, D. (2013). Focus, The Hidden Driver of Excellence. New York: Harper Collins.

Levine, S. (2009). Getting to resolution: Turning conflict into collaboration (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

A632.6.3.RB.High Cost of Conflict

Conflict’s Enduring Cost

Conflict always costs the combatants.  Although sometimes we do not count the costs very effectively, they are still very real.  If we are willing to acknowledge and calculate those costs, we would probably be shocked to see their true scale.  The costs of conflict, according to Stewart Levine, fall into four broad categories (Levine, 2009).  It is easy to calculate the direct costs of conflict.  Those direct costs include legal and other fees paid to professionals in order for them to solve our conflicts for us and wasted or inefficient use of materials.  Loss of productivity, both in terms of lost management and employee work time, constitute very real costs incurred by our conflicts (Wayne, 2005).  The time spent dealing with the aftermath of conflict results in the loss of effective working time, causing money to be spent unproductively.  There are continuity costs represented by the loss of important relationships and of the sense of community that enriches our lives.  Conflict can destroy that sense of continuity in ways that can never be recovered, leading to a significant emotional cost (Levine, 2009).  

Human beings are not machines.  Conflict takes a serious and significant toll on the combatants and can easily overflow to others, creating emotional baggage requiring healing that can take a whole lifetime.  This damage is often reflected in terms of a decrease in the trust needed to work productively together and results in aggressive and hostile interactions (Wayne, 2005).   It is often difficult to actually count the cost of conflict.  At times it tallies up in dollars and cents while at other times the costs are subtle and can cause deep wounding (Levine, 2009).

Resolving conflict in proactive ways starts with adjusting our thinking.    Robert Brannin observes that “most people avoid taking personal responsibility for conflict resolution” citing Levine (2009) saying that “we generally lack the courage to connect with others on deep levels and therefore avoid confrontations” (Brannin, 2015).  Thomas Killman (1972), suggested that “avoiding” is one of five conflict resolution styles.  

As Mr. Brannin mentioned, we are all too good at avoiding confrontation.  Dealing properly with conflicts requires understanding and skill. Learning to detect and address others styles of conflict resolution such as competing, compromising, collaborating, and accommodating, noted by Killman in 1972, goes a long way towards helping us manage conflict proactively.  Reviving the collaborative approach to conflict resolution requires rejecting the old thinking that led us, as a society, to the litigious place where we find ourselves now.  We have largely forgotten how to resolve our own problems, deferring most of them to professionals who play “traffic cop”, so that we do not have to address the real issues that underlie our conflicts.  Rejecting the old way of thinking, and embracing the new ways will, according to Levine, prepare combatants to engage each other constructively as they move from conflict towards collaboration.  

There are 10 suggestions made in Stuart Levine’s book, Getting to Resolution (2009, p. 46).  The following 10 new ways of thinking are in sharp contrast to the older, more traditional, ideas.

Believing in abundance drives out a sense of scarcity in all our relationships (1).  Conflict wastes resources, but creating healthy partnerships can conserve resources by helping us to manage them well (2).  Creative solutions to problems drive away a sense of lethargy created by the emotional impact of the problems and issues that confront us (3).  New thinking fosters sustainable collaboration; old thinking emphasizes conflict as the way to get ahead (4).  Bravado and a feeling of superiority yields to an openness that brings peace into relationships (5).  Collaboration helps to form long-term relationships that are positive, while the short-term mindset often leads to adversarial confrontations(6).  Old thinking celebrates logic as a tool to understand and address all conflict, whereas new thinking relies on intuition and feelings bringing a richer dimension to interactions (7).  Open-handedness leads to disclosure and a sense of “realness” whereas secrecy in negotiations can lead to isolation and distrust (8).  Learning contrasts with old school winning (9), while, new thinking leads us to take responsibility for our own actions instead of looking for solutions offered by professionals (10).  These 10 contrasting truths form the bedrock on which effective conflict resolution can begin.  If we fail to embrace new thinking, we will stay stuck in the old way of doing things and fail to take advantage of the effective ways of dealing with conflict suggested by Stuart Levine (2009).

Who knew my little project was a part of the CIA Iran Contra
support for Air America Operations?

When I was in the Air Force in the late Eighties, I was assigned to develop and help set up an aircraft landing zone for one of our remote bases being set up to counter drugs coming into our borders by way of Central America.  Although I thought I was working on this project independently, I failed to properly appreciate the role of one of my co-workers who had been given the role of Site Setup Engineer in our operations.  My role was derived from a Combat Control Manual for Airfield acquisition and build up and John’s (not his real name) authority stemmed from Engineering and construction operational management experiences.

            

The early phases of the project went well.  I designed the makeshift landing strip, utilizing all the input I knew how to obtain, bringing in the Navy Seabees, and built a runway in the middle of a jungle in Honduras.  Costs were under control and the project was moving forward on schedule.  I was happy with the project and the progress I was making towards its completion.

           

My unchallenged mindset was that my best effort was producing a product that was more than adequate to meet our airfield and supply needs.  This opinion was based on the past performance of similar airports and landing zones we had in operation.  John, on the other hand, felt quite differently.  It was at this point in the project and our relationship that the tug-of-war began.  It became clear that we, most certainly, were not on the same page.

            

As this conflict began, did we seek to establish a healthy partnership?  Were we open-handed and collaborative in our negotiations (New idea number 6 and 8)?  Our relationship looked much more “old school” than new and collaborative.  Each of us sought to have our ideas win the day (New idea number 9).

            

Several things happened within the scope of the project that increased the costs of the project and delayed its completion.  Equipment and resources for this project were siphoned off for use in other projects for the US Army, who were lacking in the resources that the Air Force was abundant with.  These materials were not reordered causing them to be unavailable when needed on our project.  New runway metal corrugated material was ordered and the job was redone only to find that the new surface was not any better than the original concrete or asphalt ones on a traditional runway.  The specifications for the project were also challenged.  I responded to this challenge by attempting to verify some of those specifications with Senior Military Command back home.  This action was perceived as an attack on John’s authority as a Civil Engineer which incensed him.  With John’s refusal to accept any input from me, I backed out of the project and let him finish it alone.

Stuart Levine’s 10 principles (2009) if properly applied may have helped me to become more open to John’s perspective.  We would have spent more time listening to each other instead of trying to get the job done the way each of us thought was best.  I would have learned to appreciate John’s perspective better.  John, on the other hand, may have been less adversarial and opinionated.  In the end, our long-term relationship would have been reinforced and even richened.

The project was completed.  Our relationship endured, but some damage was done at levels each of us could barely grasp, showing up as a basic distrust that continues, at least to some degree, even today.  We no longer work together, but I would like to think that we could.

The direct cost of this engagement can be measured in materials, including runway lighting, fueling stations for aircraft, even the camo netting to hide our air assets on the ground.  The project lost momentum as productivity was compromised in the favor of “correctness”.  The costs to the relationship are harder to quantify, but, when we were done, we parted as less good friends.  Finally, we both suffered emotionally.  John felt disrespected and I felt misunderstood.  Could we have done better?  Listening and resolving to find common ground leading to adjusted expectations and a new reality would have helped us to make better progress.  Stuart Levine (2009) calls this process the “cycle of resolution”.  I have found the cycle to accurately reflect a positive process of reconciliation leading to common ground and resolution of conflict.

We all have much to learn when it comes to resolving conflict in our lives.  Whereas conflict is inevitable as long as there is more than one human being involved in any situation, how well we process disagreement can be the mark of true maturity.  As leaders, we need to remain committed to resolving conflict quickly and effectively.  An effective decision-maker will vary his approach and technique to suit each new situation but will find that collaboration is one of the most effective ways to defuse conflict in a way that restores the relationship and provides a strong foundation on which to develop group productivity.

References:

Brannin, R., (2015, February 17).  A632.6.2.DQ-Collaborating as a foundation for resolution.  Unpublished discussion.  A632—Decision Making for Leaders, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University—Worldwide.

Levine, S. (2009).  Getting to Resolution, Turning Conflict into Collaboration, 2^nd Ed.[Kindle E-Book Version, downloaded from Amazon]. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehier. p. 14,46.

Killman, T. (1972).  Conflict Styles, Collaboration Toolbox—Conflict Management, [blog site]. Retrieved from: http://web.mit.edu/collaboration/mainsite/modules/module1/1.11.5.html

Wayne, E. K. (2005, May 9).  It pays to find the hidden, but high, costs of conflict.  Bizjournals.com [web site].  Retrieved from: http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2005/05/09/smallb6.html?page=all

A632.5.4.RB - How Protected are Your Protected Values

When I reflect on my own personal values, specifically on the three values that I feel are protected, I believe my principle drivers are influenced by my wife and my kids which motivated my strong beliefs in education, freedom of speech (i.e. free speech), and now in maintaining a healthy existence (i.e.lifestyle).  The first two were always important to me, one from being brought up in the military as a child, then through my service in the Air Force, and then over a career that has supported our military through my working with organizations or products that provided support to the military member or their families.  Education is also held important to me, as having a learning disorder which affected my abilities to learn earlier in my life – now assisted with medication for ADD; I have found the benefits of an education still open doors and allow us to be better persons, contribute to our society better, and lead by example in the lives of our children.  In terms of my value of the healthy lifestyle – I have always known its’ importance, but sometimes life changing events come along that force us to reexamine our values and when we found out last month that our oldest child was now afflicted with Type One Diabetes, we decided as a family that our health and well-being just became a leading value in our lives, as well as one that we were going to change and embrace for the sake of our daughter, and both daughters as well.

In terms of my own beliefs related to my three values, I have found my own value in the freedom of speech has allowed me to not only understand and support others whose values or opinions differ from my own, but that the strength of our nation is in the fact that our differences give us diversity and this in and of itself is a strength.  This week, as we were discussing our opinions on negotiations through emails – I realized that while the newer generations were perfectly content with electronic communication – something I despise personally – I found myself understanding their points of view, because for them, they were born into the internet, cell phones, and integrated lifestyles.  For me, these things grew up as I did, and I have learned to adapt out of necessity to stay competitive in the job market.  For the millennials and younger generations – these tools were a part of their own childhood and integrated into their existence, just like any other tool we incorporate into our lives.  Many of the cons of what I see in Cell phone use, texting, email for negotiations – are all just an extension of our freedoms of speech, and therefore should be seen as tools of our freedoms.  Yes, there are trade-offs with replacing verbal communication with electronic ones – but again we are fortunate to live in a society that gives us the freedom to express our thoughts and our opinions through these various communication tools.

When I think about my own protected value in gaining an education, I am reminded too of my time working in Afghanistan and seeing first-hand how in our modern day and age, people (women) are still seen as the lesser and things like learning and gaining an education are against the religious views of the men that were trying to run or ruin the country.  Seeing the Taliban keeping the same opportunities that young boys were granted, in an effort to keep their women uneducated – only strengthen the resolve of why we were there in the first place.   The value of an education is in the value of the lifetime that is enhanced by the doors that can be opened and the avenues the rewards of a good career can bring.  I try to instill in my two girls the importance of learning, and they see every day through watching Tina and I labor through our MSLD courses the value that we hold in attaining another degree.  While they do not always agree with our sacrifices, they too understand that we hold them to the same standards that we ourselves live by as lifetime learners.  We also make it an effort to always try to expose our girls to learning experiences through our experiences every day, or while on our vacations – as they will learn and understand our world better if they understand how they fit into it, and what their own values are in relationship to those around them.  I know many parents do not think an education is a value to be protected, but in truth, an education is what separates us from the masses – and the educated understand its’ worth and intrinsic value regardless of what other think.  For Tina and I the only con that we sometimes acknowledge is found in the cost to attain our degrees, but we realize that nothing good is ever free – we get value of the value we give.

Health is something all of us take for granted – well all of us that are healthy, regardless if we are fat or not.  Our health is something that should be a protected value – because when we have to deal with a disease or with a family illness, we are quickly reminded just how fortunate we are in terms of what has been given to us.  Our bodies, like cars or any other machine requires maintenance and care – I liken this to the saying that I learned in my Geek days in Computers dealing with the term – garbage in means garbage out.  Our bodies are no different, bad stuff in, bad stuff out – and while a few days of ill will overeating’s or death by chocolate are OK, continuous abuse is just asking for issue to arise. 

For Tina and I, our final wake-up call came in Avery, our daughter’s recent diagnosis with Type One diabetes, and almost losing our child when her body had shut down and she was hours from death.  We decided in the hours that she lay there fighting back to live that our lives were going to be committed to ensuring both of our girls were going to live a better and healthy lifestyle – and it would begin with Tina and I changing ours first.  Tina has always struggled with her weight, and I have in my 40’s as my career has slowed down my lifestyle and activities.  No excuse – we make choices and those choices can and will make the difference.  Tina and I have also had a crash course in nutrition dealing with counting carbs and understanding their effects on our child – learning that sugar free and diet foods are just as bad as the real ones. Living healthy must be protected because right now one child’s life depends on it, and both Tina and I also want to be in the lives of our children as long as we can.  Staying and eating healthy is the best way to do that.

Each value we hold and keep protected is important not only because of the experiences we relate to our values – but also because they can be taken away if we are not careful.  Value are also important in that they define who we are, what we stand for, and sometimes they define us, when we are not there to do so in person.  We are each held to our beliefs and our beliefs are also supported by the values we choose.  We must ensure that we are align with our values and our beliefs – and that the two support each other.  My value and my beliefs haven’t change since doing this exercise – but more so since I understand why I hold these values so important to me – because they also hold value to my wife Tina and support my two little girls.  Randy Pausch talked to the fact that we must ask ourselves how to we want our kids to remember us?  (Pausch, 2008) We all should strive to ensure that our values are past down to them and that our values are found important in our children’s lives because they share our beliefs and hold them true too.

References:

Gilbert, D. (2016, N.A.). Danial Gilbert: Stumbling on Happiness. Retrieved from Random House : https://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/gilbert/author.html

Pausch, R. (2008). The Last Lecture. New York: Hyperion.

A632.5.5.RB - Protected Values in Decision Making

I identified this week with the statement from our textbook “People often draw a line in the sand to create values that are protected from trade-offs” (Hoch, Kunreuther & Gunther, 2001, p. 251).  Our personal values are in my opinion one of the most important things you can demonstrate what’s unique about you, and identify what you believe in without pushing your ethics or beliefs outward.  I believe our values are formed starting in early childhood and are later consciously re-evaluated and can, therefore, be changed.  Protected values are generally operating in the background.  They influence everything that you do, but usually, it happens on auto-pilot.  You know intuitively what you like and dislike and decide accordingly.  I am no different, my values are what they are and luckily, Tina and I share the same values and principles, which allow us to view many things with an agreement.  My principle drivers are influenced by my wife and my kids which motivated my strong beliefs in education, freedom of speech (i.e. free speech), and a healthy existence (i.e.lifestyle).  These values (along with others) are what I consider obligatory principles a parent must teach their children. 

One of the many reasons why I think educations is so important because education allows us to advance in the world and create many wonderful improvements to our lives.  I often utter to my kids; a direct effect of education is knowledge gain.  Education is important because it equips us with the expertise that is needed in helping us realize our career goals and fetches better prospects of career growth.  Additionally, education gives us knowledge of the world around.  It develops in us a perspective of looking at life.  It helps us form opinions and develop a point of view.  Visibly, the information we are constantly bombarded with, cannot be converted into knowledge without the catalyst called education.  Education makes us capable of interpreting things rightly and applying the gathered information in real life scenarios.  Education is not limited to lessons from textbooks.  Real education is obtained from the lessons taught by life.  Education is the ground work for making advances in every part of our lives, allows us to make informed decisions, society can improve and we can learn from our past.  Determining what is right and wrong comes from informed decisions; education provides us with the basis for informed decisions.  For example, when faced with a tough decision, whether to use drugs or not, education arms us with the knowledge what drugs will do to our bodies when we use them.  Bottom-line, a well-informed decision enables us to make our choices in life so that we may pursue our dreams of success.

It’s true that free speech has limits, but I firmly believe that free speech allows the truth to surface and prevail; it is the core of a progressive society.  A progressive society constantly keeps improving itself.  This improvement can come only through new ideas, or reform in previous ones. Furthermore, unhindered speech is a safeguard against abuse of power, allowing journalists and others to expose corruption and tyranny.  In fact, the right of individuals and companies to say (or express, or perceive) anything they want without fear of censorship or reprisal, barring a defined exception.  Recognizably, “even when holding these protected values people have some threshold for when it is appropriate to hold this values and when it is appropriate to trade it off” (Hoch, Kunreuther & Gunther, p. 254).  Some speech may require filtration.  We carve out exceptions for fraud, libel, extortion, divulging secrets, and incitement to imminent lawless action.  These exceptions must be strictly delineated and individually justified; they are not an excuse to treat speech as one fungible good among many.  My kids are no different, I give them the latitude to express their concerns with respect to censorship.  It’s important for them to realize that they can share their feeling without fear of repercussions and from freely expressing their honest opinion. However, a balance must be struck between the ability to be unrestricted in the free expression of thoughts and ideas, and the need to ensure that influential figures are able to efficiently carry out their function while preserving the rights of individuals.

The only thing that can hinder us is our own decisions (Gilbert, 2005, video file).  Last month we learned that our oldest child Avery was Type one diabetic and this has changed our lifestyle towards one that not only supports her needs but at the same time is allowing us to make better choices and a better decision about what we eat as well.  Tina is always saying a healthy lifestyle should be a way of living, and not just a temporary fix for a cold or to negate a gluttonous weekend.   We all want to live a long, happy, healthy life with an abundance of energy and vitality, having the ability to perform well both mentally and physically with emotional balance and free from disease and disorders.  Leading a healthy lifestyle is one of the best decisions you will ever make, one which will impact on all aspects of your life (i.e. physical, mental, and emotional) and the issue of healthy lifestyles is an important one for me and my family.  A healthy lifestyle is a valuable resource for reducing the frequency and impact of health problems, enabling us better to cope with life stressors, as well as improving our quality of life.  Noticeably, once you get into the habit of maintaining a healthy routine, you will be able to see, feel, and experience the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

When I think about my own values, and what I want to leave with my two girls in terms of "life lessons" that they can live and grow by I must ensure that my choices and my decisions are living by example.  I must also remember that “people are very bad at estimating both the probability and value of their decisions” (Gilbert, 2005, video file).  Protected values are problematic because they imply that one value is infinitely more important than others, and other problems arise when protected values conflict. “People hold values that inform their decisions, including decisions in the marketplace and those concerning public policy” (Hoch, Kunreuther & Gunther, 2001, p. 255).  A man’s values are his foundation.  My personal values are the general expression of what is most important to me, to Tina, and to my two girls.  A value expresses the worth of something, and in this case, what I categorical like and dislike.  So they are like categories for all my preferences in life.  Again, “people often draw a line in the sand to create values that are protected from trade-offs” (Hoch, Kunreuther & Gunther, 2001, p. 251), it really depends on what’s being weighed against them.  I cannot say with certainty I would accept a tradeoff if faced with a particular situation, but I can say I consider these values to be extremely significant in my hierarchy of primaries.

References:
Hoch, S., Kunreuther, H. & Gunther, R. (2001). Wharton on Making Decisions. John Wiley & sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Gilbert, D. (2005). Why we make bad decisions. [Video file]. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_researches_happiness