TOCICO Conference 2014
Workshop “Sorting out organizational conflicts through Organizational Interest Conflict Cloud transferred into a
series of Dilemma Clouds”
Presenter - Jelena Fedurko, TOC Strategic Solutions Ltd
ABSTRACT
Three learning objectives for TP users:
1) to recognize that an organizational interest conflict is raising a series of managerial dilemmas for each
side of the conflict;
2) to see how to interconnect between the Organizational Interest Conflict Cloud and Dilemma Clouds of
each side;
3) to become aware of the techniques that give a deeper understanding of each side’s position and help to
bridge between the both sides.
Brief content
Majority of cases of tension in an organization and inability to move on are of the nature of an organizational conflict
of interests between influential stakeholders: between owners, between owners and top management, among top
management, between major organizational functions (sales and production; production planning and purchasing
planning; precut development and production; finance and operations, etc). The conflicts are genuine and each side’s
position is strongly justified. What adds to the difficulty of the situation is that either side in the conflict has means to
fully block the other side from achieving their desired objective. This often brings the company to a stall, loss of control
over the situation and frustration of the key people in the company.
In the workshop we will learn how to analyze such cases starting from presenting them in a format of an
Organizational Interest Conflict Cloud and transfer it into a series of Internal Dilemma Clouds of each side.
The attendees will be presented with practical recommendations and examples.
Through examples and their involvement in constructing the Clouds based on a real business case they will learn that:

The major difficulty of constructing the Interest Conflict Cloud is to detect A – the common objective between
the two sides, and what mistakes typically happen in detecting A.

Detecting and having agreement on A helps to open the way to collaboration between the parties on trying to
better understand their side and the other side.

Better understanding of the position of each side comes through realization that the conflict between the
parties persists because each side is locked into a series of managerial dilemmas regarding the actions
demanded by the position of the other side, and without solving their individual dilemmas, neither of the
party is able to solve the joint two-sided conflict cloud.
The work will be done on a real business case with intensive interaction between the presenter and the audience and
will involve the following techniques:

Organizational Interest Conflict Cloud construction

Using the Protocol of checking logic in the Cloud

Developing assumptions

Listing actions that are perceived to be “forced” by each side

Developing a series of Internal Dilemma Clouds for the forced actions

Developing assumptions for each Dilemma Cloud

If relevant, consolidating Dilemma Clouds to better understand the core behavioral drive of each side in the
conflict

Developing logical reasoning to negate assumptions in individual clouds

Developing Injections for individual Dilemma Clouds

Listing possible actions within an Injection and recording “short-cut” NBRs
We will have the discussion how to use this approach in presence of the both parties with the objective of mediating
between them.
Three questions that could be asked
1) How to ensure that in the course of constructing several clouds the parties will not get bored, lose interest or
slide into finger pointing or even an open confrontation?
2) What is the value of developing assumptions behind A-B and A-C?
3) While consolidating, how to know at which level to look for the consolidated statement?