Slide 1
Conflict and Resolution
[email protected]@marxjohnson
In this session
Why does conflict happen in a community?
Avoiding Conflict
Resolving Conflict (Yourselves, and with the help of others)
Activity
3 People in your group take a piece of paper from the envelope,
read the instruction but don't tell the rest of your group.
Throughout the following discussion, stick to your instruction
unless you can be convinced not to.
If you don't have a piece of paper, just be yourself, and try to
work out what is on each person's paper.
Activity
Discussion:
Your project is going to start using codenames for releases.
Decide on a naming scheme for these code names.
(e.g. Ubuntu uses Adjective, Animal. Fedora's names must relate
to the name of the previous release. Mac OSX used breeds of big
cat, and now uses places in California)
Reasons for conflict
Clash of personalities
Disenfranchisement
Poisonous People / Pessimists
Although we all work towards common goals, there may be reasons
that we dont always agree
* Clash of personalities some factors of peoples' background may
mean that they dont get on* Disenfranchisement some people feel
their views aren't given the weight they should have* Arseholes
Some people are intentionally unpleasant or divisive, for some
reason
Clash of personalities
Age
Culture
Opinion
Experience
Personality
Miscommunication
Differences in peoples' backgrounds or personalities may cause
friction with other people.In a FOSS project you dont know much
about who you're working with, so it's important to be sensitive to
this diversity to avoid upsetting people, or getting upset
yourself
Age
Clash of personalities
I remember when all thiswas punch cards
OMG NOSQL FTW!
* Young people tend to be more gung-ho with new ideas, older
people can be more cautious and not move with the times* People of
different ages have different points of reference, different ways
of communicating
Culture
Clash of personalities
Let's discuss this over a beer!
Um...
* Different countries, religions, nationalities have different
cultural norms* Inviting someone from a culture where alcohol is
forbidden to talk over a beer probably isn't appropriate* A one-off
misunderstanding is unlikely to cause an argument, but persistent
ignorance and insensitivity to such issues may breed animosity.*
Avoiding local in-jokes and colloquialisms is also important those
outside may feel excluded
Clash of personalities
Opinion
Git is better than Subversion!Python is bettter than Ruby!Iron
Maiden are better than Metallica!
Meh.
* Some people have more opinions than others* Those who always
express an opinion may appear arrogant to those who dont* Those who
seldom express opinions may appear disinterested to those who
always do* It's important to express an opinion as a point of view
with justification, not as the one true way
Clash of personalities
Personality
* Not everyone is the same, and sometimes people just dont get
along* Some people find it hard to empathise, and may offend others
without realising it or understanding why they require
patience!
Experience
Why don't we pass $_GET variablesdirectly to the database? It's
way easier!
That's the stupidestthing I ever heard.leave and never
comeback.
Clash of personalities
Miscommunication
Let's eat, grandma!
Let's eat grandma!
!
* Projects will generally have a standard language for
communications (often English)* If this isn't your first language
you may have trouble with grammar and syntax, and not say what you
mean.* Even if it is your first language, most communication is
text-only and asynchronous, while we learn to communicate in
person, with body language and vocal cues. Mood, tone, and sarcasm
are hard to communicate via text.* If you read something that
appears terse, re-read it to check that you haven't misunderstood,
and ask for clarification before getting upset.* Before you send
something, check to make sure that it's not likely to be
misunderstood
Disenfranchisement
Not listening to everyone's views
Putting commercial sponsor's needs first
Volunteers vs. Employees
* People may feel their views aren't considered by the projects
leaders * This might be justified, e.g. they haven't contributed to
the meritocratic process. This needs to be explained sensitively.*
Commercial sponsors may have plans for a project which some members
of the community dont support* Volunteers on a project may feel
they are taken less seriously than employees of a sponsoring
company * All communication regarding a project should be done in
the open to mitigate the feeling that decisions are being taken in
secret. * Engage with feedback from the community * Possibility for
tension here - how do you open up to the community while keeping
things secret for a "ta-da" moment * Canonical attempted to balance
this with the Ubuntu Skunkworks initiative, bringing community
members in on internal projects * In practice this ended up with
Canonical having more managed-but-open projects, rather than closed
projects with community contributors, such as the Ubuntu Touch core
apps.* There needs to be a variety of channels for people to
provide input to avoid barriers * These channels can also be useful
records when resolving conflict - if an idea is brought up that has
previously been decided against, the archives of communication
channels should contain the discussions which can be referenced. *
Channels need to take temporal dislocation into account
Poisonous People
Someone decides to be intentionally disruptive
This other people are convinced, and follow the pattern
This may lead to splits or forks
Must be countered with evidence Don't feed the troll!
* Some people will just want to be dicks.* Not only creating
negative feeling and dissent, but encouraging others to join in.*
Need to be countered with evidence, not with words. Show them to be
incorrect in a calm and professional manner.* At some point, if
you've determined their behaviour isn't going to improve, it might
be time to tell them to go away. * Does their dissent outweigh
their contribution? * How can you stop a volunteer from
volunteering? * Technological means - remove them from discussion
lists, revoke commit access * Having a well-defined code of conduct
can make justification and implemention of this process easier.
Avoiding Conflict
Know your communityLearn to spot clashes of personality
Defuse conflicts before they happen
Accept that people make mistakesOnce identified, forgive and
move on
Avoid discussions in inflammatory topics, use the Code of
Conduct to kill them early
* Learn to identify conflict before it happens* Know your
community, its members and their relationships* Some people will be
more inclined to conflict than others* Spot a discussion which
might give antagonisitic people an opportunity to wind others up,
and be prepared to deflect such behaviour as soon as it surfaces.*
Dont feed the troll* People make mistakes - these need to be
pointed out in a constructive way so the person can learn from
them, and then forgiven* Use a code of conduct to make it clear
subjects which are considered off-topic, particularly politics and
religion
Resolving Conflict
A person may not realise their behaviour is causing conflict
Chastising them could lead to alienation speak to them as a
friend, not a leader
Synchronous media is key
If the conflict was public, the outcome should be too
* There may be reasons why people are behaving in a certain way.
Speak to them before deciding they're just being difficult, as they
may not even realise. When they realise that they're being abrasive
or upsetting people, they may adjust their behaviour to fix the
problem without the need for further intervention. * Such
conversations should be conducted as a friend not a leader - not a
performance review or scolding. * They should always use a
syncronous Audio/Visual medium, this allows for greater
sensitivity, and elimiates the risk of misunderstanding.* If the
conflict is in public, leadership need to be seen to dealing with
it so that the community gets a sense of justice.
Activity
Conflict can be Constructive as well as Destructive.
In pairs, brainstorm completions for the phrase Conflict is
destructive when...
Now, brainstorm Conflict is constructive when...
The conflict resolution process helps us turn a destructive
conflicts into constructive ones
Destructive: one person has to give in too much (win-lose) the
dispute hurts a relationship there is no agreement reached there
are uncontrolled emotions, anger, and raised voices the conflict
prevents or stops people from working Conflict is constructive when
it: leads to resolution builds a strong relationship with improved
communication opens people up to new ideas leads to a win-win
resolution develops common goals clarifies a problem situation and
leads to positive change
Which was easier to discuss and why? What surprises did you find
when the entire group reported out? How do you think most peopleat
work feel about conflict? What are the lessons you learned from
this activity?
The Resolution Process
Participant Driven
Mediated Negotiation
1. Collect data - Learn what the conflict is about, and develop
an objective picture of allparties perspectives.2. Probe - Ask open
questions, listen, and engage with all parties to get the full
story.3. Save face - work toward a winning resolution for everyone,
and try to avoid embarrassingeither party while always remaining
objective and unemotional.4. Discover common interests - Finding
common interests and alliances will help find pointsof commonality
beneath the conflict.5. Reinforce - Where both parties share a
perspective and agree, reinforce those perspectives,and
particularly try to use data to back it up.6. Negotiate - Start
simple, trying to get both parties to agree on simple solutions,
and thencontinue to build toward the common goals of both parties
involved.7. Solidify adjustments - Review, summarize, and confirm
the areas in which both partiesagree.
Participant Driven Resolution
Establish the cause for grievance
Establish the party with the power to resolve the issue
Agree on a course of action that resolves the grievance
Review the situation to ensure the situation is resolved
Elliott, M., & Scacchi, W. - Free software development:
Cooperation and conflict in a virtual organizational culture.
* When a conflict arises, it can be resolved by the participants
before it gets out of hand* This can avoid damage to relationships,
and allow work to move on more quickly than if the conflict was
allowed to escalate.* Steps: * Establish the cause for grievance *
Establish the party with the power to resolve the issue * Agree on
a cause of action that resolves the grievance * Review the
situation to ensure the situation is resolved * Key points: * Take
one another's views seriously * Focus on your common goals * Be
polite, dont use inflamatory language, dont take things the wrong
way * Take your time in ensuring your point is made clearly and
understood * Be open to compromise if it helps achieve your common
goals
Principled Negotiation
1. Separate the People from the Problem
2. Focus on interests rather than positions
3. Generate a variety of options before settling on an
agreement
4. Insist that the agreement be based on objective criteria
Fisher, R. and William, U. - Getting to Yes: Negotiating
Agreement Without Giving
1. separate the people from the problem * The cause of conflict
is often down to different perceptions of facts * Encourage both
parties to put themselves in one anothers's place * Parties should
not assume the worst, nor blame one another for the problem * Each
side should try to make proposals that are appealing to the other *
Conflict and negotiation can be emotional * Emotions should be
acknowledged, and their cause identified * One party dismissing the
feelings of another is likely to escalate the emotional conflict *
Apologies and sympathy can help diffuse emotional conflict *
Managing communication * Parties may not be used to communicating
with one another * They may not be used to the communication
process, so focus on what they have to say rather than listening to
one another
2. focus on interests rather than positions * Positions are what
you have decided upon, interests are what led you to those
decisions * Conflict is caused by opposing positions - resolution
based on positions means someone will lose out * Identifying the
interests behind each position helps find an alternative position
that suits both parties * Parties must explain their intersts
clearly if they want it to be taken into account by others * Each
party must keep a focus on their interests while being open to new
positions
3. generate a variety of options before settling on an agreement
* Parties may have a narrow view of the options available * Parties
may have decided on an option before considering other available
options * Parties may view all options as win/lose * Separate
invention from evaluation of options - encourage wild and creative
brainstorming of ideas, the most promising of which can be
identified and refined later * Focus on shared interests can break
the win/lose mentality - Low cost to you, high benefit to them.
4. insist that the agreement be based on objective criteria *
Base decisions on verifiable facts. E.g. decisions over a choice of
technology should be based on studies/benchmarking that both
parties have faith in, not personal preference or flame wars * If a
party will not agee upon substatiative criteria, then focus on
procedural criteria * Proceudural criteria may be an agreed upon
process, E.g "You cut, I'll choose"
Mediated Resolution
Separate the people from the problem
Get the facts
Discuss
Document
Reflect and maintain
1. Calm and reassure * Set the tone, dispel agression, make it
clear that you're committed to resolving the situation. * If
parties have strong negative feelings towards one another, this
should be done on an individual basis before bringing them
together.2. Get the facts * Ask for both sides of the story * Work
through the chronology of events, asking for more detail where
needed * Dont offer opinion or emotion, dont take sides * Ask for
each side to provide evidence of their account * Gather additional
data from archives, logs, blogs etc. * Consider getting a third
party points of view, especially where the wider community has been
affected. * Can be done directly, or by a wider call, but needs to
be managed carefully * Establish an objective view of what happened
* What went wrong? * Have the rules or expectations of the
community been broken? * How could the parties have handled the
situation better?3. Discuss * Hold a meeting between the
participants - public meeting if the conflict involves the wider
community * Real-time, fixed length * Introduce * Clarify ground
rules * Focus on mending relationships and avoiding future
conflicts, not trying to undo past mistakes * Discuss the issues
accepting input where appropriate * Discuss issues one at a time,
focusing on areas where participants agree rather than disagree,
reaching consensus where possible * Participants will have some
principles in common - belief in FOSS, belief in the software's
goals, start here if no-where else. * Take notes and make sure
everyone understands what's been agreed * At the end of the
meeting, schedule the next one to ensure a sense of continuity4.
Document * Codify all agreements, with careful use of language, and
ensure that participants agree on wording.5. Reflect and maintain *
Check in with participants to ensure that agreed actions are being
taken, rules are being stuck to * Provide validation as
participants reflect on their conduct and progress, but let them
bring reflections to you, dont draw them out
Activity
Read the Project Banana case study and discuss in your
group.
What should the project do to resolve the conflict?
Questions?
Resources
Bacon, Jono. (2009). Art of Community O'Reilly
Fisher, R. and William, U. (1983). Getting to Yes: Negotiating
Agreement Without Giving In Penguin Books
Lambert, J and Myers, S. (1999). 50 Activities for Conflict
Resolution 2 Activities HRD Press
Elliott, M., & Scacchi, W. (2004). Free software
development: Cooperation and conflict in a virtual organizational
culture. Free/Open Source Software Development, 152-172.
