Customer Reviews

Discover Your Conflict Management Style

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Speed Leas' book on conflict management is used in many settings, but is perhaps best known in seminary and church contexts. It is used at my seminary as part of the basic ministry class, to enable students to learn about their own conflict management styles directly before assuming a role in churches or classrooms where they will have to be the ones managing other conflicts (which may or may not involve them directly).

There is a 45-question inventory of couplet questions that the reader is asked to complete prior to reading the short, 40-page text. (From a design standpoint, one might ask why this is in the back of the book, rather than the first thing presented.) This will give clues based on the six styles of conflict management where the reader falls within the categories. It is not a rigid classification system -- my own completion showed an equal high score in three of the six categories, and a tie for second place for two others.

The six categories are Persuasion, Compulsion, Avoidance/Accommodation, Collaboration, Negotiation, and Support. Most people will recognise that their own conflict management styles are a combination of these types, which get defined carefully and described in some detail despite the low number of pages in the text. Most people will however tend toward a few types of conflict management -- Leas gives clues as to how one can improve, both within and outside of the category. Leas shows the benefits of each style and the drawbacks of each style.

Effective use of this tool requires honesty on the part of the reader. One can decide to be a collaborator or a supporter, but one should honestly answer the questions and recognise the starting point. One person I know who took the test answered as he believed the seminary class wanted him to answer, and chose which group he thought would be best to join. This, of course, belies the intention of this teaching tool, but the incident did demonstrate clearly his real categorisation (that of compulsion).

As is pointed out in the text, the best time to use this tool for learning about conflict management is not in the midst of a conflict, but rather before such conflicts happen. Learning from this text, the reader will learn to manage people's conflicts more wisely, first by understanding one's own style, but also from gaining insights into the behaviours of others. Leading all to a more satisfactory conclusion is a desirable outcome in any organisation, secular or ecclesiastical.

Speed Leas is an educator and consultant experienced over many decades of teaching and working with church and other organisations. Sponsored in this project by the Alban Institute, Leas has produced an ideal tool for use with leadership groups, church groups, academic groups, boards, and any other group or community (which is, in fact, all of them) where people might disagree and where conflict might arise. It is short (which is good for those with busy schedules, who find it difficult to find the time for reading), it is to-the-point and direct in its language (not bogging down in theory or speculation too much), and it is practical.

This tool breaks conflict managment into six styles. It contains an instrument (a self test) to help one determine what is one's dominate style. It also contains detailed descriptions of each style of conflict managment, situations in which each style is strong, and situations in which each style should not be used. A wonderful tool to use in management groups which have difficulty with latent conflict; it may help participants to determine what behaviors are maintaining the conflict.

Often read as a companion to Moving Your Church Through Conflict, this book gives a more thorough description of six styles of approaching conflict: persuading, compelling, avoiding/accommodating, collaborating, negotiating, and supporting. Each of them is defined, with suggestions as to how and when to use them, and the probable outcomes one can expect. A self-scoring inventory is included. This is a brief book (only 44 pages), but what it lacks in size it makes up for in practicality. No church leader should be without this resource.

This is a simple workbook style publication designed to help you, as the title suggests, discover your conflict management style. A self-assessment tool aids in determining your conflict management tendencies from among the following styles: persuading, compelling, avoiding / accommodating, collaborating, negotiating, and supporting. Knowing your preferred style and others will increase competence in encountering conflict and those with other preferred styles of conflict.

Strengths and Weaknesses
A great strength of this book is its brevity and tight focus on the topic. Another strength is that Leas addresses how, when and possible outcomes for each of the styles.

Relevance to The United Methodist Church (my denomination)
This resource is relevant to The United Methodist, particularly in regard to upcoming conferences - general, jurisdictional and annual. This resource may also be helpful to congregations in conflict internally or externally.

Relevance to The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (my church)
I believe that this resource would be relevant and helpful to staff and lay teams that are experiencing conflict or those teams that wish to be better prepared for conflict when it arises.

Recommendation
I highly recommend this document to leaders within The United Methodist Church both lay and clergy, particularly delegates to General Conference 2008. I also recommend this resource to those who desire to increase their knowledge and usage of various conflict management styles.

The order was place and received in perfect order. Thanks! Speed has produced some very helpful materials.

If you do buy this book save the receipt so that you can send it back if you are disappointed like I was. No respectable publisher would ever publish this book.