“Working with Eric was a pleasure. We developed a good rapport and established a level of honesty and trust. I valued his counsel and recommendations. I find Eric to be very competent in a variety of disciplines. He is able to correctly diagnose organizational problems and suggest solutions that are on point. I found Eric to be a professional with the highest levels of honesty, integrity, and ethical behavior. I would not hesitate to engage his services again in the future.”
Kathy Lueckert,
former Corporate Services Director,
Department of Planning and Development,
City of Seattle
(Kathy is now Director of Planning and Finance for Advocacy and Communications at World Vision.)
“I've worked closely with Eric on developing and presenting the Leadership Eastside community leadership program. He has that rare blend of extensive real-world experience along with a very strong background in theory and research. He moves easily between big picture strategy and the tactical details. Eric brings a superb ability to plan, execute and follow-through, both as a behind-the-scenes planner and as an upfront instructor and facilitator.”
Annalee Luhman,
founding board member,
Leadership Eastside
Conflict and change: The blog
8 June 2008
Happy with the outcome but not with the process?
Have you ever gotten what you wanted out of a decision and yet felt dissatisfied with it? If so, you are like the majority of people I put through a role play exercise Thursday.
The role play was designed to produce some of the real-life dynamics that occur around what I call “dangerous decisions”—decisions where people care both about the quality of the decision and also about having a role in the decision making process.
At the end of the exercise, which involved space planning, nearly half the group felt “satisfied” with the workspace they’d been assigned in the exercise, but only about half of them felt satisfied with the process. In other words, half of those who got what they wanted (a nice cubicle) felt unhappy about how they had been treated during the process.
This experience nicely illustrates the difference substantive satisfaction (I like the decision) and procedural satisfaction (I was treated with respect).
Many people don’t get the difference between these satisfactions. They are, in fact, independent of one another. People can be satisfied with a decision process that does not give them what they want, just as they can be dissatisfied with a process that gave them what they want.
You can’t usually give everyone the outcome they want (after all, in my role play exercise, there’s only one corner cubicle), but you can strive to create a process that treats people with respect and builds trust. Where to start? Take a look at the Dangerous Decisions handout on the resources page.
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