Conflict situations and emotional temperament
How do members of the work community act in conflict situations? Who is retreating and who is looking for compromises? SmoothTeam and Workplace Nordic have collaborated to develop a simulation to look at conflict situations.
Workplace Big 5 based simulation
Note! This simulation is only used by certified Workplace Big Five facilitators, ask more from SmoothTeam (smoothteam [at-sign] smoothteam.fi) or Workplace Nordic (hilkka-maija@workplacenordic.com). The simulation helps to understand the different tendencies and behaviours of team members in conflict situations. The exercise promotes an open culture of discussion on the topic. The simulation deals with different ways of dealing with conflicts such as adaptation, seeking compromises and not giving up easily. During the simulation, the experiences of the team members are discussed in a facilitated manner and ways suitable for the team to present different views are sought. The simulation is based on the A and C dimensions of the Workplace Big 5 model. In the simulation, your employer has a summer place for staff to rent, the surroundings of which are being zoned in a hard way. Your team is trying to figure out what it will mean to your summer place. The exercise consists of nine situations. Your job is to choose who in your team would find the situation or the course of action most natural for themselves. After each situation, there is a discussion to justify the choices, to hear the views of others and to learn about the natural ways in which colleagues react in conflict situations.
CLAIM 2: Competing
Who of you defends their views strongly and does not like to give up?
CLAIM 3: Avoiding
Who of you prefers to act spontaneously regardless of views of others?
CLAIM 4: Seeking compromise
Who of you actively promotes finding a compromise?
CLAIM 5: Collaboration
Who of you likes to consider everyone’s opinion and to find a solution that suits all?
Research background
The simulation is based on the WorkPlace Big Five Profile™, which describes a person’s natural ways of action and comfort zones. The WorkPlace Big Five is based on the Big Five model of personality, which is the most widely studied and accepted way globally to identify personality differences between people. Personality traits form certain kinds of natural reactions and actions for all of us. The significance of these can be easily seen and discussed with the help of the Conflict Situations and Emotional Temperament simulation. The simulation can be played even if no profile has been made. However, profiling increases understanding of personality traits and their relationship to individuals’ natural ways of actions and zones of comfort.
Objectives
- Help the team develop their ways of handling conflict
- Highlight individual differences in responding to conflicts and help to understand how colleagues react
- Enhance team operations and create well-being
For whom
- For teams of 4-16 people. The simulation is suitable for teams that want to anticipate or better understand the behaviour of team members in conflict situations. Also suitable for temporary teams and project teams as well as remote teams.
- The simulation is not intended for solving an acute conflict situation, but for developing team self-understanding and conflict capabilities. For conflict situations, we recommend, for example, work guidance or conciliation.
- The simulation facilitator must be Workplace Big 5 certified. The simulation can be done as part of the Workplace Big 5 analysis or without it.
- Duration about 4.5 hours. If necessary, can be shortened to 2.5 hours.