Chapter 4: Influence, Compromise, and Problem Solving

CHAPTER INTRODUCTION: WISDOM AND SKILLS FOR THE LEARNER

Five activities make up this chapter. They include a variety of approaches to help the learner develop understanding of and skills for personal empowerment and influence and sets of exercises that facilitate working together and solving problems. Trainees learn how to use a power-based mnemonic and a problempositioning tool, experience nonjudgmental listening, become aware of styles of corporate political behavior, and have hands-on learning about the danger of false assumptions. Activities in this chapter take the learner from the big picture of problem definition to specific solutions and tools for solving problems.

Trainees in this chapter are treated to several sets of guided pencil-and-paper exercises, of carefully designed teamwork, and the use of children's puzzles to increase the cognitive skill building that problem solving, compromise, and influence require. These five activity authors were chosen because of their collective wisdom and interesting presentation of skill-building exercises. Some of the topics included in this chapter are power as a source of influence, mental perspectives for workable compromises, self-interest versus organizational interest, ethics of corporate political behavior, values clarification in a problemsolving context, and problem solving in cross-functional and unstructured tasks .

Chapter 4 is strong in analysis, synthesis, and application skill building. In its entirety, it is as much a chapter on cognitive development as it is on influence, compromise, and problem solving. In addition, these activities go to the heart of creating personal empowerment and through it, organizational growth.