WIZDOM
(1) Anne’s Cloud, Part 3, Denise Meyer
CONNECTIONS
(2) 4th Annual TOC for Education International
Conference
QUOTE
(3) Eric Jensen
EDITORS’
NOTE
(4) Kay
Buckner-Seal and Cheryl Edwards
(1) Anne’s Cloud, Part 3
By Denise Meyer, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Editor’s Note: In the last episode, Anne broke the cloud on
the wrong side and left Mr. Alvarez seething!
Upon reflection, she made an injection on her side of the conflict. Read to find out how Mr. Alvarez reacted to
the situation this time. If you would
like to read the previous episodes in TACTics, 4/7/00 and 4/14/00, visit our
website at: www.nwfl.net/suerken/toc
Her hands shaking with emotion, she took
the paper with the cloud on it to confront Mr. Alvarez. “Mr. Alvarez, can I have a moment of your
time?”
“Yes?” he responded and stopped what he
was doing to listen.
Anne took her crumpled paper full of
scribbles and marks and began reading her cloud following the communication
guidelines as best she could. “I think
we both want to have a good working relationship, don’t we?”
“Yes,”
answered Mr. Alvarez.
“In order to have a good working
relationship, I understand that you must have a successful staff meeting?” She asked the statement as if it were a
question. She knew she needed to wait
to see if he would express a different need but there was no immediate response
so she continued. “And in order to have
a successful staff meeting, you must have me at the meeting.”
“Well, you don’t have to be there…” he
began and sort of trailed off without completing the thought. It seemed to Anne that he was backing off
from his previous insistence that she be there.
Anne continued, “However, in order to have
a good working relationship, I must have my ideas and opinions valued. And in order to have that, I must go to my
training.” She then began to explain
her assumptions, “At first I assumed I had to be at the entire training session
but as I thought about it, I realized that I could miss the first two hours
because it’s mainly review. That’s why
I was hoping the staff meeting would start earlier. Since the meeting usually lasts two hours, if we started at 8:00,
I could get to my training a little after 10:00 and not miss too much of the
training.”
Mr. Alvarez smiled and said, “I’ll tell you what, we’ll start at 9:00 as
usual but everything that pertains to you we’ll do at the beginning and I’ll
have you out of here by 10:00. I promise.”
“I really like what you put here,” he
said, pointing to the common objective on her paper, “that we both want a good
relationship. I think that’s very
important. Thank you for coming in and
talking it out with me.”
Anne left the office beaming. As she went back to her desk to prepare for
the meeting, she thought about the difference in her feelings before she walked
into the office and when she walked out.
She had gone in angry, nervous and scared at the thought of confronting
her boss. The paper she was holding had
been shaking in her trembling hand. She
did something she had never done before.
What had made the change? She
realized that the paper in her hand had guided her communication. She had gone in knowing what to say because
she had thought it through in a logical way.
That made all the difference.
Without having thought it through, without that paper, she would not
have been able to talk to him about this problem. The cloud had given her the strength to do something different.
The meeting started at 9:00 and Anne was
excused at 9:45. When she arrived at
the training they were still talking about yesterday’s lesson. Anne shared her story before they got into
the day’s work.
The next Monday, after the training, Anne
found a note from Mr. Alvarez on her desk.
It read as follows:
Dear Anne,
Thank
you so much for coming in to talk over our small problem. Yes, many times we don’t consider other
people’s priorities. That is why
communication is so important. You are an excellent teacher. I am happy to have you on my staff.
Mr. Alvarez
Anne could see that these tools for resolving
conflict were going to serve her in more ways than one.
(2) 4th
Annual TOC for Education International Conference
Sheraton Ambassador Hotel
Monterrey,
Mexico
August
9-12, 2000
Lodging: (*Room rates
are based on single OR double occupancy.)
Classic room— $86(+tax) For more than two people to a
room, there is a $15.00 charge for each extra person.
Executive room— $116(+tax) For more
than two people to a room there is a $25.00 charge for each extra person.
Registration
for conference rates must be made before July 25. After this date, rooms will be released and
on a space available basis. Make
reservations directly with the hotel by identifying yourself as a member of
TOC for Education.
To
make reservations from:
• Mexico
— (direct to the hotel): 1.800.832.8400
• USA
& Canada— (central reservation): 1.800.325.3535
• Nations outside of North America—(switchboard): 1.528.380.7000
To
our entire TOCFE Family, please continue to share so that we all may maintain
our POOGI. Have a pleasant week!
Send
HYPERLINK to:
bucknek@resa.net
redwards@sault.com NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS!
Send
mail to:
Cheryl A. Edwards
2253 S. Hill Island Road
Cedarville,
MI 49719 USA