Managing Change

5‐2Discussion with People You're in Conflict with

The Pattern in Connections That Don't Go Well

In the Organization Development process, you may encounter a situation where someone with the Organization Development mindset will need to have a discussion with someone with the achievement mindset in order to improve their workplace or organization (just as the store manager Sakigake and Akemoto had to in the hospital). Let us look at this discussion through Otto Scharmer's four‐level model, which was earlier introduced in Part 1.

First, we can see the ① polite conversation level in how Akemoto has interacted with Sakigake until he was hospitalized. No conflict arises, but they are also unable to influence each other and cause change. The ② debate level is the kind of exchange we usually have in our everyday lives with people who have different ways of thinking than us. At the debate level, people do not try to understand one another, and no cooperative relationship is born.

Discussing and Building a Cooperative Relationship with People You're in Conflict with

In Story 5, Sakigake attempts to have an ③ introspective discussion. He listens sympathetically to the other party's story and focuses on the other party's strength. Since Sakigake did not try to insist which mindset was ...