Writing Assignment #4 (on Ch. 6 or 7)

For this assignment, I will focus on Chapter 7 "Conflict." Not only is it time for us to start on this topic as a class, but it is a very relevant topic for me personally with my administrative work within the ELP.

This is because the ELP has been undergoing a great deal of conflict over the last year and a half due to differing views on how we should structure our curriculum.

The result has been a tremendous amount of stress, sleeplessness, and anger. In many ways this conflict seems to be tearing us apart. While the majority of the instructors have supported a particular set of curricular reforms, a minority of senior instructors are against the reforms. Due to feelings of not feeling respected, of accusations that have been made against them, and due to a considerable amount of "groupness" (a sense of "us" vs. "them" that has magnified the importance of the issues), this group is determined to do anything in their power to stop the effort at reform.

So, what can I "take away" from this chapter on Shackleton?

First, we should have "Deal[t] with Anger in Small Doses" better than we did. Legitimate concerns were expressed by the dissenting group early on that were not addressed. Efforts should have been made to have had extensive discussion and debate over these concerns, and perhaps some compromises needed to have been made, or better yet, we needed more of a conflict positive environment in which open discussion might have led to some "win-win" negotiations. Instead, the minority group felt marginalized and disenfranchised which subsequently led to feelings of intensive frustration and ultimately aggression.

Secondly, we needed to have "Engage[d] Dissidents." The reform dissidents were essentially ignored. What we needed to have done is brought the dissenting voices and members "into the tent." I have always loved this notion from Shackleton, that he took the members that might pose the greatest threat to his leadership and made them members of his tent. This way he could consult with them and keep them feeling listened to and wanted, and prevent them from joining forces with others. There is an expression in English, "Keep your enemies closer and your enemies closer" which is attributed to the great Chinese military commander Sun Tsu which expresses a similar concept. We needed to have done something like this by better including our dissidents in the reform process so that they could have more of a say and be part of the reform. Not doing so has led to a lot of problems.

My efforts over the last few months have been to try and make up for the past. Giving the opposition voices the opportunity to express themselves has been one approach. We have had several open meetings in which opposition views could be presented and discussed. More recently, opposing members have been given roles in which they could contribute in ways in which they were uniquely suited. Whether these efforts will bear fruit is still unclear, but it is hoped that some of the division and distrust and anger can be reduced as we move forward.