"While I was the manager of a large software
support organization at Aetna Life and Casualty, I helped Skip Rackmill
pilot a half day seminar called "Harmony In The Workplace." By offering
the office worker some of the personal effectiveness and relationship skills
of the martial artist, he was able to provide a vehicle for Conflict
Resolution within the organization. Skip's treatment of martial
arts is thought provoking and builds confidence. His goal of extending
his teaching skills beyond martial arts appealed to me and apparently to
my employees within my organization. We ran the program for two consecutive
years. I had students complete evaluation forms and on a scale (low
of 1 to a high of 5), the overall average was always over 4 and several
individuals checked 5 in every category, a rare occurrence for business
education."
-Mark Feldman, Manager, Aetna Life and Casualty
A person not trained in the art of Aikido might see each
conflict as a battle to be either won or lost. Viewing a conflict
in this way, a person might either want very badly to avoid it or to win
at the expense of the person causing the problem. That is, a person
who views a conflict as a battle may be either an evader or an antagonist.
Both are poor choices.
The evader avoids problems
at all costs. As a result, the issues that cause conflict are never
resolved. We all run into people of this sort, and we all have the
anger and frustration of dealing with them.
At the other extreme
is the antagonist. This person views interactions as contests and
tries to win them at all costs. In most games, the person who scores
the most points wins. So the antagonist tends to think that the person
who scores the most put-downs wins an argument. From this mindset,
conflict is seen, not as presenting an opportunity to resolve a problem,
but as presenting an occasion on which to vanquish an opponent. If
the antagonist "wins", he or she might feel good. Yet there is always
the possibility of losing and a vanquished person may remember what has
happened and look for the opportunity to retaliate.
The manager trained in Aiki
abhors both of these approaches to conflict. On the one hand, through
training in Aikido and Ki Development, a manager would come to realize
that, to work through a problem, one must connect with it and embrace it—that
one who avoids problems never solves them. On the other hand, an
Aiki-trained manager would know that it is to one's own advantage as well
as an attacker's not to cause any more (physical or psychological) harm
than necessary.
The win/win response to social
and psychological attacks is the best for teamwork and for creating harmony
in the workplace. The manager trained in O-Sensei's philosophy of
love and reconciliation would opt for this approach.
The first step in this approach
is to stop viewing conflict in terms of contests, which must have a winner
and a loser. In reality, conflict affords us opportunities to engage
in a problem and to solve it successfully.
The second step is realizing
that conflict is part of almost every life process. (We can admit
this without liking it.) If we view conflict as inevitable, we are
not predisposed to think of it as negative and will not be as likely to
try to vanquish our opponents.
The third step is to have
as our goal the resolution of conflict. How many times do we really
have this as our goal? The idea of fighting should only be appropriate
as a last resort.
Regardless of their level of
responsibility and the nature of their businesses, mangers experience conflict
and stress. The inability to deal with them leads to decreased performance
and even to health problems. Ki Development, the psychological aspect
of Aikido, offers alternatives to the usual ways of dealing with conflict
and stress. Since these alternatives avoid clashing, they minimize
stress and promote harmony. So, the Aiki-trained manager may be able
to lead the way, teaching subordinates the principles of harmony
and thereby improving their morale, motivation and productivity.