Purpose: To illustrate more constructive ways to solve conflict.

 Time Required: 10 to 20 minutes.

 Size of Group: Unlimited.

 Materials Required: None.

 The Exercise in Action: In workshops composed of both supervisors and subordinates, Larry Julian, manager of employee involvement at the Philip Morris Manufacturing Center, Richmond, VA, finds one of the group’s favorite pastimes is finger-pointing. And the finger most often points toward management as the words “they” and “them” become a part of group vocabulary, he says.

But now, when employees begin to point fingers and place blame, Julian attempts to intervene using role plays. He first places a chair behind a desk or table along with a name tent that says “The Boss.” He asks the finger-pointing employee to take a seat behind the table in the boss’s chair, and asks another employee—preferably the supervisor—to take a seat in a chair in front of the table and assume the role of the finger-pointing employee. The finger-pointer then presents the problem to the boss. The boss is asked to form a solution to the problem from a supervisor’s point of view.

Obviously, excellent facilitation skills are needed in the role plays to prevent confrontations. But Julian’s experience has been that placing the finger-pointer in his or her new role provides a new perspective on the “need for people to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.”