To get into the habit of looking for win-win solutions, consider the following conflict situations. For each situation, generate as many possible win-win solutions that you feel the individuals involved in the conflict could reasonably accept. Give yourself a few minutes for each case. Write down all win-win solutions that you think of; don't censor yourself. Please make sure to provide a response to the question at the end of the exercise. 1. Pat and Mark plan to take a two week vacation in August. Pat wants to go to the shore and relax by the water. Mark wants to go the mountains, hiking and camping.
Since Pat and Mark have interest in two different activities and they are vacationingfor two weeks, one week Pat & Mark can relax by the water and another week Mark & Pat can go hiking in the mountains that way they both get the best of both worlds.
2. Pat recently got a $3000 totally unexpected bonus. Pat wants to buy a new computer and printer to augment the office; Mark wants to take a much needed vacation.
Since Pat has $3000 dollars she can budget to spend half of the money to augment the office and then they can spend the other half of the money to take a short vacation. Mark can also pitch in to help.
3. Pat leaves clothes all around the house and they sometimes sit there for days. Mark reallyhates this and they argue about it almost daily.
Pat can learn to be more tidy and be aware of Mark’s feeling and Mark can just learn to accept that Pat is messy and just pick up the clothes around the house if it bothers him that much.
4. Philip has recently come out as gay to his parents. He wants them to accept him and his lifestyle (which includes a committed relationship with another man). His parents refuse to accept him and want him to seek religious counseling to change.
5. Workers at the local bottling plant want a 20% raise to bring them into line with the salaries of similar workers at other plants. Management has repeatedly turned down their requests.
Perhaps workers on the bottling plan should ask for a 10% raise instead of 20% andthe Management should give the workers some sort of rate and compromise in order to keep the workers happy and at the same time not breaking the bank.
How might you incorporate win-win strategies into your own conflict management behavior?