RAS 2/1/12 Word Count: 511 Bullets from Bob – Feb 2012

Raising and Resolving Conflict: A New Learning Curve

S&OP has long been known for raising and resolving conflict about balancing demand and supply – it is at the heart of success. We often call this “putting the ugly moose on the table” – that is, exposing the big ugly animal (issue), lurking in every conference room, that no one wants to talk about because of the discomfort of conflict it engenders.

The objective, of course, of raising the ugly moose (issue) is so that a solution can be crafted, well into the future in proactive fashion, providing many alternative choices. Developing a will to do this is often a function of the tools at hand that help minimize the discomfort. That is -- learning how to expose these disagreements without being disagreeable, gaining positive (not negative) energy toward solutions, is key.

In short, there are two parallel parts S&OP that help resolve conflict:  A defined and disciplined process that exposes the conflict (S&OP’s strong suite) in clear, data supported fashion  A will and a way to address the intrinsic organizational conflict in a constructive and comfortable fashion

In every organization that I’ve had the privilege to work with, this cultural or behavioral issue of conflict resolution has been addressed in one way or another – sometimes more formally than others – but always dealt with. Although I’ve learned an awful lot about resolving conflict, I’ve often wished that knew more. As a matter of fact, continued learning is one of the things that’s keeping me active in this field. My help with an organization always starts as the teacher, but if they are successful, I leave as the student. That’s because State-of-the-art in this field is with the practitioners (not academics or consultants) – the people in the trenches making S&OP work. Further development of pragmatic conflict resolution tools will be no exception.

Through my work, I’ve recently come to a new level of learning. I’ve met and begun to collaborate with Stewart Levine – a “recovering attorney” specializing in this area of resolving conflict. In his book, “Getting to Resolution” Stewart builds on the work of Roger Fisher (Getting to Yes) and Steven Covey (Principle Centered Leadership) to craft a well defined framework that can be learned and applied, requiring only a will to do so. If you want to know more about how this blends with S&OP, see our column, “Executive S&OP and the Cycle of Resolution: Resolving Conflict to Align Human Energy” @: http://www.rastahlcompany.com/16001/16043.html

We’re looking for a few volunteer companies that want to implement (or improve) a state-of-the-art S&OP process, incorporating Stewart’s conflict resolution framework. The path we have crafted remains true to my past implementation methodology: low cost, low risk, high impact, resulting in quick results.

The prerequisites of participation are simply:  A desire to implement, or improve an existing S&OP process, to best of the best  A will to engage in the behavioral aspects of conflict resolution  A willingness to further incorporate Stewart’s framework into the S&OP process

If you are interested in learning more about our path forward, or would like to volunteer your company to participate, please contact me at:  [email protected]  508-226-0477

Thanks for listening – best wishes. Bob Stahl

P.S. For more information, see: www.resolutionworks.com Getting to Resolution http://www.rastahlcompany.com/16001/16043.html Characteristics of a good meeting – McGregor Cultural Changes – Mello/Stahl Column Conflict Framework – Stahl/Levine Column http://store.tfwallace.com/sales--operations-planning-the-self-audit-workbook-p7.aspx Ugly Moose – Workbook http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Yes-second-Text-Only/dp/B004T8RAPM/ref=sr_1_2? s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327937006&sr=1-2 Fisher – Getting to Yes http://www.amazon.com/Principle-Centered-Leadership-Stephen-R- Covey/dp/0671792806/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327937098&sr=1-1 Covey – Principle Centered Leadership