Ep 201| Five strategies - How to deal with Conflict resolution being a Designer

Welcome to Design for Change. Thank you for staying tuning in with me. Through this podcast, we are impacting thousands and thousands of people and I'm on a mission to help students to lead a creative lifestyle being a design and before 2030, I want to help 1 million designers in order to make their livelihood because of this by achieving it through a process, through a methodology which I teach in my program. And I really recommend you if you're a consistent listener, there is a free gift available for you because since I'm starting this 201st episode, so if you're listening to my earlier podcast, I wanted to give you a surprise gift which is a huge impact, I would say. Okay. You can find the gift in the description and I'm sorry, I won't be able to keep it for a long time because I cannot provide this for everybody. Okay. I hope this is a good. What you call a great benefit and a value exchange which we can offer. You can find out in the podcast description. Okay. And also Design for Change is impacting hundreds and hundreds of students to get really, really a great results, let's say in terms of making their portfolio, resume, getting jobs. Some of them have cracked job recently. So I'm really, really happy, guys for this. And if you want to express any kind of feedback or if you need your pain points to be addressed in this particular podcast, there is a description available like about this podcast, what do you think? So you can freely write upon what you really think about it. I would happily read each and every comment because I never leave anything. Even if I get thousands of comments, I read every single one of them and then I respond to it and then I take subsequent action if feedback is required. Okay. With that being said, I really wanted to appreciate you one more time for this support by creating this, what you call 201 episodes so far. Thank you guys. And we are going to discuss how to really resolve conflict. Being a creative designer, there are effective strategies to do it. But first we'll go into this particular podcast and we'll understand what it is and how it is formed and how we can effectively deal with it. And there are some resources also, which I'm going to be sharing this podcast. Okay, so take a lot of notes. Let's jump in. Welcome, guys. Now let us understand what is mean by conflict resolution. Lot of designers face this problem. See, there could be a lot of reasons for this particular conflict resolution. Okay, first let me make you clear what is mean by conflict. Conflict is a difference in the opinion what we have difference in the Thought process. What we have, particularly when you deal with your clients, if you deal with your cross functional teams, being a designer, if you're working in an organization, or let's say even if in interview somebody asks you, you need to get this clarity, it's a difference in opinion and, and that's where the conflict happens. Conflict is not bad. It's how you deal with this, how you respond with this matters. That's if you're not able to respond properly, then it's bad. Okay, without conflict we cannot do any project in design that's for clear. I'll tell you in this podcast, what are the potential conflicts which can arise? Okay, let's say if you're a designer, the very big conflict I would say is we will get a lot of ego clashes because there is a creative difference in your thought process, in your ideas, in your problem solving ability, right? I'll tell you what is the effective method to improve this. Communication is a big, big approach, guys. I would say I would address even all the points in communication because for every stakeholder you need to deal with a different strategy. Okay, first thing you have to focus on the user needs. Clearly don't fight for the ego. Have the rationals and data presented in front of you. With that you have to take a decision. If you focus on solving a problem for the user, then there is no point who is correct. Then everybody will come into a point what is correct. See, I repeat this. Always try to understand what is correct rather than who is correct. Then the ego clash will be dissolved. Okay, so this kind of a framework you can discuss within your team and have a collaborative problem solving approach. This is the way forward to improve this, what you call conflict resolution. Better way. Okay, Second, when you have a discussion with your management, like let's say when you have a discussion with your top senior management, the potential conflict, what you can have is like let's say deadlines, timelines, okay? And also some budget considerations and resource considerations. Sometimes you'll be constrained with some budget, resource, timeline, everything, right? How do you really understand this? Make sure these people really understand the design process in a clear way. Show them the impact what design can bring to the business. And it can sustain the revenues continuously by applying the design and the design thinking process. If you make the management effectively understand this, they'll be more than happy to give you timeline. I'll give you an example, guys. We did a project with our client, high impact project, okay? It was a client actually Microsoft. So what happened is they were not clear initially with the project, what they've shared and they asked me to deliver the output and we took one or two people in our team and then we started working. After a week time we were completely confused. What is the real requirement? The customer is also not clear what he really wants. He's asking for some output. Give me output, give me output. Four weeks is the time. Four weeks is the time. We were like oh, what is this? We are not getting clarity. After a very deep research and then understanding the clear requirement of the needs, what really is required for the customer, what we can do in this time frame, what best we can arrive the moment when we did the research and then we showed that output to the customer in the third week, the customer was really blown away. Oh my God. This is exactly what we are looking at. Amazing. Then we said, no, we need some more time to really improvise it in a better way. They said, yeah, take it, no problem. Take two more weeks, no issues. See guys, people will really help you if you make them empathize. The design impact, what it can do for their project, it doesn't matter. It's a client, senior management, top management, boss, nothing. It's about your empathy, showing them the impact. What it can make, what cost improvement it can make, what opportunity cost it can save. Like let's say if the product is not tested properly, it brings back hundreds of problems which involves thousands of crores of investment to really go and test it and solve it. Rather if we take one more week time and spend few crores to really address it now, it can be avoided later. It's your responsibility being a designer to resolve this conflict. Got it? Third important stakeholder, we'll see. Client. Okay. Sometimes what happens is there'll be a misalignment in the expectation. There'll be a lack of understanding. That will be a potential conflict. Okay, I gave you an example so you can correlate. Very first strategy I'll tell you is you have to first actively listen and understand their requirement. Sometimes if the requirement is not clear, ask them again. If in spite of that they're not telling, then you can go and work on your research assumption. Everything. Okay. Clarify your requirements upfront and repeat them. Use some visuals and mock ups in order to show this is what are you expecting. Then what happens is that resolution will be slowly mitigated. Okay. The other client, what I would say, the other stakeholder, what I would say is testing quality, your software testing team and all these things, right? So you'll have a lot of technical limitations. You will be Making some concepts and other things and they'll not be telling, hey, this is not possible. Hey, this graphics nayoga, that's that font will never work in the, in this platform. It's an Android, it won't work. It's an Apple, it won't work. It's a QT based platform. So a lot of problems will come from the testing guys, okay? Usability issues will come. That's why you need to partner with them early before you make the concepts. You have to conduct some regular testing session, guys, and have an open feedback with them, see if there is a limitation with them. They can't bring magic to solve this. Right? If that particular font is not available in the platform, do you think that font is codable and do you think the team will code it and then they'll bring it? No, it was done by something somebody else, which takes huge time and development in the software itself. So understand the limitation before starting a concept. I tell you, if you put all of your efforts, bring four or five concepts after a month and then you show this to the testing team. The very first person who is frustrated is you because he doesn't care. He'll simply tell it's not possible, leave. The management will also say, okay, yeah, of course it's your responsibility to elite this earlier, very earlier, before you pre ambulate anything. That's why you need to go and talk with multiple stakeholders, empathize with them, listen very carefully in order to understand them. Okay? Next comes engineering people. Okay, Most, most favorite because I had a chance of working as an engineer for five years and then I'm now currently a designer. So I know how an engineering mindset really works. Okay? I involved in a lot of conflicts, particularly with engineers, manufacturers, suppliers. It's always about feasibility, concern guys, nothing else. Okay? So the way, the better way to resolve it is understand the technical constraints first. Involve these engineers in the design discussions, not after you make it involve during the design discussions. In an early way, what you can do is you can find out some alternate ways you can work on a collaborative way. The moment if you do it, what happens is you will see the problem in a different way, you will solve the problem in a different way. Don't be rigid on the answers, okay? Be rigid on the final outcome, but be flexible on the way you can achieve that. Allow yourself to be more creative considering the limitation of the technology aspect. See, you can define a technology for a good generative project or any kind of a conceptual project or I would say speculative project, but many times it won't work. So understand the ground reality and understand the limitations of the engineering also and work on it. Next is marketing and sales. You will have a problem of brand inconsistency. Some messaging misalignment will be there, a lot of confusion will be there. So how do you really deal with this? To ensure the design really aligns with the brand strategy properly. Their colors, their typeface, the graphics, the language, the user experience, how design can really improve that particular perception is what you have to work. If you work, definitely marketing and sales will be happy. So it's not about what designs you make, it's about how you're able to improve the user experience aligned with the brand. See, if you apply this result, this conflict resolution technique, you can increase your productivity like anything. You can save lots of hours and days, guys, you can solve, you can save a lot of reworks. I would say you can and you can complete projects well within timeline. It improves your user experience, allowing the users to make a better usable products with more customer satisfaction and better what you call, I would say they'll become long term customers for you and it improves automatically your revenues, it improves your sales, it improves your satisfaction and overall metrics of the product gets really improved. So this is the actual thing which people are really missing it on. Okay, see when it comes to this, let me give you practical action point guys. Let it be any particular resolution. Okay, There are five steps which you have to apply. First is do an active listening. Encourage the people to talk, listen, okay, Have a transparency and trust. Second is build that empathy of your perspective also to them very clearly and slowly. Make sure they repeat this and make sure they've understood your concern. Also if there, if there is a gap there, please go and work on it. Third is now establish a clear communication. See, you're not communicating in the step one, you're communicating in the step three. Because you have to listen first you have to build that empathy and then you have to go and communicate using some pictures, some sketches, some. Some. Some free. What do you call some? Some. I would say a very simple language. Don't use this jargon, languages. Okay? Very, very simple. What is the user really going to get benefited because of your concept? That's it. Fourth is now mitigate and mediate this conflict revolution. See, introduce a very structured discussion, let's say involve any top management or a third party facilitators to resolve it. Sometimes that helps a lot. Definitely it helps hugely. When you work with engineering people and all what happens is in the moment, if you Bring senior management and then your eyes really gets widened. And then their eyes and vision also get really broadened and they'll see the whole product in a big picture now. They'll say, yeah, it's possible. So sometimes that is required. You have to mitigate this conflict in a way so that you bring a mediator around. This fifth is get a continuous feedback loop and close this. See, always understand after what happens, your discussion, what happens after your discussion. And then loop back that feedback and iterate it until the conflicts are completely resolved. The moment if you do it, what happens is you'll have an effective strategy to deal with different people. Can I tell you guys the impact of conflict resolution and Design Effectiveness? 2022, a study highlights that there is a direct correlation between effective resolution and improved design outcomes. 25% increase in customer satisfaction improves 15 percentage boost in productivity and profit. So this is the power of using this particular conflict resolution. It's not about client or designer or engineering testing, quality marketing. No, guys, whether we have a design flaw, whether we have a quality assurance problem, Brand misalignment, design revisions, deliverable expectations, mismatch, timeline mismatch, budget mismatch, bugs identification mismatch, design adjustment, product features, competitive advantage. See, all these things could possibly cause a very good amount of conflicts, but it's about how you respond. Using the strategy matters. It's not being impulsive and chilling. Hey, no. How come you'll say this concept is not good? How come you'll say this idea is not good? How come you'll say this is not possible in the graphics? How come you'll say this typeface is not good? Going into that impulsive mode will not bring anything. Okay, you are in your amygdala. Amygdala is a part in your brain. It's called a survival mechanism. You always be impulsive and then you're being instinctive and then you're taking decision. You're just running away from something is happening or you're just fighting with the animal which is going to attack you. That's a evolutionary trait. What we have, which is called an amygdala in our brain, we have to not use this. We should use something called media for prefrontal cortex, which is the central part of our brain. So, jagdish, how to activate this? Particularly when it comes to conflict resolution, you will have to just think for a while and really understand the positives and negatives when a situation is raised. Give. Just one second, guys, before you shout at someone or you talk with someone, what happens is you'll get a clarity whether to really react to this situation or we can slowly respond in a different way. The moment if you do it, your blood glucose and oxygen will go into your forebrain. Then your media prefrontal cortex gets into attention. That's called an execution center where you'll see a lot of positive connections, innovations, and then you'll see a lot of positive energy coming in order to create a very different and unique and innovative product, which solves a bigger problem. And when you constantly work on this media prefrontal cortex, your amygdala doesn't have any job to play in that. So the next time when you are in the conflict resolution, remember this, you're not activating your amygdala in your brain. You're just using media prefrontal cortex scientifically. I've given you the background. Also, what happens being impulsive or how you respond very smartly. Okay. Yes. Guys, I hope this podcast would have given you a great value. Again, by listening to this podcast, you're not going to become a Buddha or a guru or Jnani in this one particular information. No, it's about how you take it in practice. It's about how you remember this impulsive and instinctive decision and responding in a smarter way when a situation comes, even in an interview, even in the design discussions or anything. Okay, I'll suggest you some articles, guys. You can read a book called Crucial Conversations. I mean, it's a tools for talking with stakeholders in a different way. It's by Kerry Peterson. Okay, I'll be pasting the description in the this resources in the link as well. Second, difficult conversation how to discuss with what Matters Most by Douglas Stone. It's a good book. You can read some of the good what you call. You can attend this workshop called Conflict Resolution workshops offered by LinkedIn Learning, local community centers or professional organization. I would say LinkedIn learning is a good tool. You can learn there. Okay. You can take courses on conflict restitution skills, University of California Irvin Effective Communication in workplace on LinkedIn learning. So these are all the materials I would say you can understand. You can go and listen to the podcast called Managing Conflict in Design Process. It's by design better podcast by InVision. It's a beautiful podcast. I've listened to their materials, guys. It's superb. They have some of the experts coming in their podcast channel and lot of people will have a clarity in explaining this. So navigating the stakeholders into the conf. Navigating stakeholder conflicts. It's another podcast by Creative Confidence by idu. So these design better and ID are beautiful podcast. You can listen to it so that you will start improving on your all communication in a lot more different way. By understanding and by implementing this, you'll see a huge difference guys in your next communication itself. Okay, so let me know in this podcast what do you think about it and make sure you claim the free gift and then you're most welcome to have a discussion with me guys. Okay? If you find this podcast useful, give me a Best already in Apple and Spotify. Thank you so much. Take care. All the best. Bye bye. SA.