Agreement between Jeremy Hunt and the Junior Doctors’ representatives to meet at ACAS in an effort to resolve the current pay dispute comes as no surprise. Both sides appear to be maintaining an aggressive mindset.
For regular readers of Oxford Medical Training’s Insights Blog we have been regularly commenting on the development of the crisis, exploring what doctors can learn from this that they can apply to their everyday leadership and team interactions. In our post Kubler-Ross, Doctors and the 7 Day NHS for example we predicted that ‘Bargaining’ would be the stage to follow ‘Anger’.
What impact is ‘Bargaining’ likely to have on outcome of the ACAS talks.
Back in the 1970’s, a time renowned for strained industrial relations, Thomas and Kilmann described five key approaches which people take in conflict situations: Avoiding; Accommodating; Competing; Compromising and Collaborating.
Neither party in the current dispute would appear to be interested in Avoiding or Accommodating -where they would be prepared to concede to the other regardless of the rights or wrongs. So that leaves Competing, Compromising and Collaboration.
Competing behaviours– being confrontational, assertive and uncooperative, making declarations, demands and seeking apologies – are likely to lead to hardening of positions, entrenchment and further anger until eventually someone ‘loses’. Relationships could be broken beyond repair.
Compromising behaviours, where the two parties effectively trade with each other – I’ll give up this if you give up that – may sound a more reasonable and appropriate approach, especially when the ‘Bargaining’ mindset of the change cycle is in play. The danger here however is that the actual compromise reached is effectively ‘the worst of both worlds’. No-one will be happy but both will walk away with agreement to move forward.
Collaborating behaviours are by far the most productive. Unfortunately they are often the most difficult paradigm to adopt – particularly if the opposing party appears to have little appetite for this. In true collaboration, both parties treat the conflict as a problem which they can only solve together. This may mean starting from scratch by defining and agreeing honestly and openly about what is important and why, then proceeding to create something new.
On a personal level, each of us can have little direct impact upon the ACAS discussions. We can however consider our own approach to conflict in our daily work.
Which approach do you use most often: Avoiding; Accommodating; Competing; Compromising; Collaborating?
What is the impact?
Which approach could you use more?
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