Category: post 7.1

Italy’s Gianluca Zambrotta, left, fights for the ball with Paraguay’s Antolin Alcaraz during the World Cup group F soccer match between Italy and Paraguay in Cape Town, South Africa, Monday, June 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

Thoughts on RESPONSE TO ADVANCING ORGANIZATION BY CONFLICT RESOLUTION

The original can be found here:

Response to Advancing Organization by Conflict Resolution

Thank you, Pierre, for your questions and thoughts on Avisha’s post. You are always clear and to the point. A great gift.

Communication is part of Lepsinger’s  (2010) Cooperation Builder 1 (p. 173). I have realized these last few years that we never communicate enough. I have a weekly meeting with my school’s leadership team and then an individual meeting with each one of the members every week as well. Besides, my doors are always open to the team, who can drop in as many times as they want without setting an appointment. If they see the door open, they can come in. The rest of the staff members usually go through my secretary to set up an appointment. I try to keep an open-door policy as much as possible. There are still times where we assume others can read our minds and understand what we want (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 174). I would say that in the last two years we have also used WhatsApp quite often at school. It is becoming our primary form of communication. We have a staff group, the leadership team group, teacher group, and many others. We also have parents groups, and each class has a group. It is actually for us much more efficient than email since most low-income parents do not have computers but will have a cell phone.

Regarding competition, I would like to mention a few cultural habits that hinder cooperation and transparency. It seems that there is a natural tendency to compete here in Paraguay. I have seen the difference between people playing soccer here and in the US. There is a drastic difference. Any friendly game of soccer here is fearlessly played. A reason I have stopped playing since I still want to come to work the next day with both my legs in one piece. I switched to running the last three years. Now I only play with my 8-year-old son. This competitive spirit is brought into work as well. The following examples are seen in the culture around us and not necessarily at our school:

• There is a habit that newcomers need to “ganar el derecho de piso” (gain the right to the floor). It means they need first to pay their dos as they start a new job.
• There is also the habit of “pasar la factura” (give him/her the bill). It means that if you make a mistake with someone, that person will pay it back at some point later. My brother has worked with natives in northern Paraguay, and he said that they have an incredible capacity to remember things that people have done to them, good or bad. This ability seems to have stayed present in the Paraguayan culture.
• My last example comes from this week. I had a birthday, and we celebrated it with a get-together. Paraguayans love to celebrate, and so do I. But some people seem to compete to see who gives the best present. Not something I encourage. Others give the present to gain favor with the “boss” and get the upper hand.

Reference:

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. Jossey Bass.

Thought on Blog 7.1 Response to Rob: Conflict and Cooperation

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Blog 7.1 Response to Rob: Conflict and Cooperation

Thank you, Sea Breeze, on your thoughts on working at different schools.

I have only worked at Christian schools in the past eighteen years. Twelve years in the USA and six years now in Paraguay. I went to high school at a public school in Brazil but never worked in such an environment. I did have the chance to work at a factory for one year between high school and college, which gave me an interesting perspective on working at a secular environment.

From what I have experienced, Christian schools can have two different purposes, or two different missions and visions. At least this is what I have seen, not just in the US but also here in Paraguay. One purpose would be to maintain the culture if a majority of students come from Christian families and another is being missional when the purpose is to bring students into a new relationship in Christ. In this case, the majority of the students come from non-Christian families. I understand that although students may come from Christian families, it does not mean they will have a personal relationship with Christ.

While in the US I worked for a school that had the purpose to maintain the Christian culture. Majority of students were from Christian families, and the institution assumed that people had an understanding of what it meant to be Christian. The purpose was not to evangelize. Some of this also had to do with the particular denomination the school was part of. In my personal opinion, I see more cons than pros with such schools. It was a great place to work, very professional and caring but we failed to see the need to bring students into a personal relationship with Christ.

I am a principal now of a school which has the purpose to be missional and brings kids into a relationship with Christ. We do have students that come from Christian families, but we don’t recruit them. They naturally come to us. Most of our students have very little knowledge of the Bible and who Christ is. It gives me great energy to work in such a place. As Wolters (2005) says, we are in the job of helping to reconcile the world with the Father (loc. 141). We are healing and restoring what is fallen (loc. 860).

As in any organization, it is important to have the MVV clear since it can also add to additional conflict. On the other hand, conflict is sometimes unavoidable since we are humans. As you said, in some institutions conflict destroys the environment and can make daily routines very difficult. As an administrator, I have learned much about how to manage conflict. I am learning to take conflict as an opportunity to grow. I am learning to see conflict as something God has permitted to help me grow personally and professionally. It is very difficult at the moment to see what God is doing.

Blessings,

Reference:

Wolters, A. M. (2005). In Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview [Kindle version] (Second ed., Loc. 1-1582). Retrieved from www.amazon.com

Discipline that Restores – Thought on HC 1 Leader´s Post 7.1

HC 1 Leader Post 7.1

Thank you, Jessica, for giving me a view of your workplace. I believe this is the first time I am responding to one of your posts.

You mentioned that one way you establish common ground at your workplace is to have good communication, holding people accountable, and making sure everyone is maximizing their strength. Lepsinger (2010) also suggests creating collective objectives to establish common ground (p. 179). Making sure that people are working for the same goals creates clarity. You also mentioned how the MVV is clearly stated and placed in areas where everyone can see them. I think that is still an area we can grow at our school. Although we often speak about our mission, our vision, and our values, we do not have them displayed in too many areas of the school. One way we establish a common ground at our school is offering every month training. These are times where we sit together of our or more and learn together about a particular topic or relevant issue that concerns us all. By learning together, we create a common ground.

You also addressed how conflicts are resolved in your organization and suggested how your institution would benefit from educating staff member more on conflict resolution. What we have done in the past few years is working with a particular material that I would also recommend to you. About three years ago we started to use the restorative discipline material from Claassen and Claassen (2008). Although they initially wrote it for a school environment, I believe it applies to any setting. They use very clear steps to follow. Conflict is not a problem but an opportunity for growth. Usually, when there is conflict, people are getting hurt, the goal is to restore those relationships. The starting point for Claassen and Claassen’s (2008) material is what they call the respect agreement. Not much different than what Lepsinger (2010) says about having a common objective. What we do at the beginning of every year, is write out a respect agreement between people in all areas or departments at our school. I do it with my leadership team, my teacher coordinators do it with their teachers, and the teachers do it with their students. We make ourselves accountable to each other before we start working each year. When anyone breaks that agreement, we remind ourselves about the respect agreement. If that does not work, we set up a meeting, etc. As a conflict does not get resolved and escalates there are particular steps to take. What we seek is to restore the relationship between people.

Blessings,

Reference

Claassen, R., & Claassen, R. (2008). Discipline that restores: Strategies to create respect, cooperation, and responsibility in the classroom. Ron and Roxanne Claassen.

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. John Wiley & Sons.