A632.6.3.RB - The High Cost of Conflict

My final year of my undergraduate studies, my department was schedule to study abroad in Lacoste, France. The college I was at worked on a quarter schedule, so my department was scheduled to go in the spring quarter, which was our final quarter of the year.  My best friend was going, as well as my portfolio teacher, who I had been with throughout the whole year.  I was really distraught on whether or not I should go because I had yet to land a job and was in the process of communicating with a few companies who seemed interested.  I struggled with the emotional conflict, as Stewart Levine discusses, with my decision to go and risk losing a potential job, or stay and risk missing out on a once in-a-lifetime opportunity.  After weighing my decisions, I decided to stay and not study abroad.  I still question my decision to do so.  I did end up getting a job during that time, which was great, but I ended up not enjoying it a year later and have sense left. 

Using the “cycle of resolution”, I would have most likely approached the situation differently and analyzed things in a way that would have made it easier for me.  First, I would have thought about what it was that I really want to get out my education, or “developing an attitude of resolution”.  The second step I would have thought about what I want my story to be.  What do I want to accomplish from my experiences?  Asking these questions would have helped me figure out how to tell my story.  I did a little bit of what Levine mentions for telling your story.  I asked many different people what their experiences were when they studied abroad and if they regret their decisions.  In almost all cases, everyone had an incredible journey and would not have changed it.  Listening to their stories now, I feel I have a completely different perspective that I didn’t take into account back then.  Next, step would be to get current and complete.  Levine notes that this step is about articulating what usually goes unexpressed.  This is an area where I tend to struggle, as I don’t express all of my thoughts fully.  If I had faced all of my thoughts at the time, I may have recognized what my real reasons for not wanting or wanting to go were.  Next, seeing vision for the future would have helped to guide me to understand what was more necessary in terms of experience; experience in a new culture and new environment, or on the job experience with a new job. 

Overall, I believe that the cycle of resolution would have helped me face some of the ideas that I ignored during my decision making process.

A632.5.5.RB - Protected Values in Decision-Making

Protected values are something I think about often without realizing it.  I have slowly started to shift my lifestyle in a way that reflect my protective values more, although some of my habits can reflect otherwise.  The protected values that I mentioned in my Brain include protecting endangered species, protecting our environment, and avoidance of products that mistreat animals.  My protected values are all very similar to one another and reflect off of each other.  They all became the values they are through experiences I have had in my life, which I will discuss further.

My first protected values, protecting endangered species, arose from my interest and love of nature and birds.  I am a “birder”, which is less common amongst young adults who are my age.  My fiancé and I go birding as often as we can.  When I was in my final year as an undergraduate I had to begin working on my portfolio. I decided to start looking at endangered species, specifically birds, and realized just how crucial they are to our ecosystem.  The more I began exploring the topic the more evident it became.  I realize it can be a difficult transition to rehabilitate animals back into an unfamiliar environment.  An example of this would be beavers.  While beavers are not endangered, they are struggling to find habitat due to overdevelopment.  A lot of people also do not like beavers, as they can be highly aggressive animals.  These are issues that can cause gray area when discussing protection of endangered species, or animals in general.  The steps I have started to take to help in this progress include attending educational events that discuss steps we can take on our own to help animals, donating to wildlife organizations specific to different animal species, and donating money for people on their birthdays and holidays to help protecting endangered animals.  While it isn’t a drastic step, these are steps I take often to ensure my protected values are valued. 

My next protected value is about protecting our environment.  These all go hand in hand, as protecting our environment also ensure healthier habitats for animals.  This became a serious issue for me when I was in high school.  I was working on a science fair project for a class and decided to look into recycling because my local high school did not recycle.  This was a school of over 3,000 students, none of which ever recycled during school hours.  What made matters worse was that our school was a local drop site for the community to bring their recyclables and the school had recycling bins, but chose to use them as trash cans instead.  This really began to bother me, so I developed a science fair project based on theories and methods for improving recycling.  My project ended up winning the local fair, which qualified me to attend and compete in the INTEL International Science Fair in Nevada at the time.  That was a life changing experience for me, as I was able to be around other students who were just as passionate about their area of interest as I was.  These experiences really changed the way I treated the environment.  I am not entirely sure what clicked for me, but ever since that period of my life, I have been an avid recycler and energy saving individual.  While I do not drive a hybrid car and use more water than I should, I try my best to do my best where and when I can.   

The final protected value that I have is avoidance of products that mistreat animals.  There are several instances in my life that led me to this belief, my love for animals being a major factor.  The more I began to educate myself about cruelty of animals in so many of our products, the more I tried to move away from it.  I became a vegetarian about 7 years ago and have slowly begun to stop using as many products as I can that use animal testing.  It’s been difficult, as a lot of products that avoid animal testing tend to be a lot more expensive.  Because of this, I have learned how to make a lot of my own products from my home, which has cut down on costs and reduced the amount of chemicals I am putting on myself.

Overall, these values have influenced a lot of my major decisions in my life.  I still have a lot of smaller decisions that they do not effect quite as strongly as some of my major life decisions, but they do have some weight on choices I make.  I have a hard time eating certain foods and putting certain things on my body because I psych myself out with it to avoid it, but there are times where it’s sometimes just easier to give in if money or time is a factor given the situation.

A632.4.5.RB - Deception in Negotiations

People mislead others for a variety of reasons, especially when making business deals.  In some cases, this is very common as both the buyer and the seller are trying to get the best deal possible.   Many people see the cost of lying is less than the benefits of lying; therefore, lying seems like the best option in certain situations.  (Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001)  There are several ways you can evaluate information and prepare yourself for negotiations. 

The first step you can take is to establish trust.  Establishing trust will reduce the chance that others will employ defensive justification during negotiations.  (Hoch, et al., 2001)  Another step you can take is to ask direct questions.  When something is specifically addressed, it makes it more difficult to lie about it on the spot.  People are less likely to deceive you if you are asking direct questions.    Going along with asking direct question is to listen carefully.  The more you listen, then you more you can understand how qualified this person is.  Listening carefully will also provide you with more questions to ask later on.  Lastly, it is important to pay attention to non-verbal cues.  Sometimes these can speak louder than verbal cues.  After asking a question, pay attention to changes in blinking, breathing, and other physical shifts.  While this isn’t always completely accurate, it can be a good indicator that someone may be deceiving you. 

A recent negotiation I participated in, in which I had been misled was when I purchased my first car.  While I prepared for this, as I knew car dealers are most likely trying to deceive you, I still felt that I could have done better during the negotiations.  This was my first experience buying a car on my own.  I researched online and found the perfect car at a great price, but I unfortunately didn’t research enough and my lack of knowledge made me end up paying more.  I noticed, however, that arriving prepared did work to my advantage.  I was trading in my old car and brought along the market value in both the condition I felt it was in, as well as the condition below that.  In both estimates, the car was valued significantly higher than what the dealership was going to give me.  I showed them my paperwork and managed to double the price they were going to give me.  It was still less than what it should have been, but I felt it was a step in the right direction for understanding negotiations in situations like this better for next time. 

A time in which I may have overstated a claim happened recently at my current job.  I work at a higher end, experience based retailer.  People shopping in the store usually spend several hours walking around and looking at the artwork and displays we have, as well as the product we sell.  It’s a unique place that offers a variety of quality pieces for both home and apparel.  I have a lot of experience working in high end retail stores, so I know the type of customer we get.  They usually do not want to know how much they’re spending and expect the best quality product, so when we have someone come in and ask a question as to why the product is worth the money, it can catch you off guard.  I first worked for a company called Yves Delorme, which is a high-end bedding store.  When I started the job, I was well versed in why the products were as expensive as they were.  With my background in fibers, I understood a great deal of why the product was high quality, but expressing that to a customer can sometimes be difficult.  I felt it was appropriate to review why the particular goose down feathers we used were best for comforters, or why our sheets were a higher quality even though the thread count seemed low to the average customer that walked in.  It was an educational opportunity for me to share with our customers, so that they could understand why they were spending their money here and not somewhere else.  At my new retailer I work for, we get more of a variety of customers since it caters to both young and older women, as well as people looking to decorate their home.  Because of this demographic mix, we sometimes get a variety of responses to our prices.  The products we sell are not our brand, but other brands that represent the look of the store.  I had a customer ask my why a particular top was as expensive as it was, and I honestly didn’t have an answer for her.  I was not prepared with knowledge of that particular top and the brand, so I said it was a high-quality fabric.  I felt guilty, but it’s near impossible to know the product specs for every item in our store, as we have a lot of inventory that changes often.  She ended up purchasing the product. 

From my previous experience, I generally do not like to lead people on to buy things that they might not feel comfortable spending that kind of money on.  I always think about myself and being in a position where I know I shouldn’t be spending money on something, but all I need is someone to say “oh just get it! You’ll love it”. I find that difficult to do.  I usually try to find out about the person and what they’re looking for and then show them the best options for what they need.  It is the ultimately their decision to purchase or not, given the information I have provided.

   Hoch, S., Kunreuther, H., & Gunther, R. (2001). Wharton on making decisions. New York: Wiley.

A632.3.4.RB - Reflections on Decision-making

Frames can easily distort a picture of a scenario that we are faced with.  “These distortions can cause communication problems within a company” and can complicate situations.  (Hoch, Kunreuther, and Gunther, 2001)  These mental traps make it difficult to see the real picture when trying to determine a decision.  Frame blindness is when we do not even realize what we are doing and the areas we are missing when analyzing a situation.  Each frame can highlight and hide different aspects of a situation, making it difficult to see the whole problem at hand.  There are several ways we can avoid frame traps and frame blindness. 

The first step is recognizing that there are frames.  Conducting a frame audit is the best solution for seeing these frames.  Surfacing your frames is a method used that presents the frames in a visual manner.  Creating a visual representation to bring out the frames is very similar to brainstorming and 100 mph thinking.  By starting with certain characteristics of a situation and branching out can help you note areas where you may have overlooked previously.  Paying attention to the way people frame questions can also help you to reveal hidden frames you may have missed.  Listening and analyzing these frames can help you to rethink previous frames from the past. 

The second step is to identify and change inadequate frames.  Once you have revealed the frames, changing them and reframing them to better fit your questions will help.   It is important to make sure that your frame is effective.  Does this new frame get the job done, prompt you to ask the right questions, has the frame been challenged, it is easily understood, etc.  Asking these questions can help to assess the effectiveness of your frame.  It’s also important to question your own reference points and understand where your ideas are coming from as well. 

The final step is to master techniques for reframing.  This step includes incorporating a variety of methods to help you reframe.  Testing out multiple different frames can help place yourself in a different environment and offer a different perspective.  In my current job, an example of this would be having the senior management understand the difficulties of some of their subordinates.  This is something that happens often, where a newer employee makes a mistake and suddenly it turns into an issue where the senior management thinks the new employees are incompetent.  The reality could simply be a misunderstanding during training.  If senior management decided to place themselves in the position of the new employees, they may have a better chance of revealing where issues may be occurring during the new hire training. 

My current company and I could greatly benefit from utilizing the framing toolkit.  One of our biggest issues is misunderstanding and miscommunication.  We have many managers who all have a different approach to managing the same team.  The set up of our team is interesting in that we have a hierarchy of managers overlooking 1 team of a constantly flow of newer employees.  Each manager frames issues differently, causing conflict amongst the new employees and other managers.  I believe that my team would greatly benefit from first recognizing that frames do exist and that we all our framing things differently.  Once we are able to recognize this, I think the flow of communication between each other would improve greatly.  

There are many ways to reveal frames and reframe these instances into situations that are better understood.  It is important to understand that framing greatly influences our decisions, so by understand how to read frames, we can better manage our teams.  

Hoch, Stephen J., Howard Kunreuther, and Robert E. Gunther. Wharton on Making Decisions. New York: Wiley, 2001. Print.

A632.2.3.RB - Sheena Iyengar: How to Make Choosing Easier

Sheena Iyengar gave an excellent speech about the affects of choosing.  In her talk, she discussed four methods to help make choosing easier and better overall.  Her four rules for make choosing easier are to first cut.  By cutting out unnecessary options, we improve our choosing experience.  We talked in a our class discussion this week how having a variety of options can cause human error in the decision making process.  The Wharton text discussed how a combination of both human effort and automated effort can help in the decision making process.  When combining this with Iyengar’s idea, I feel that this would help with the decision making process because having an automated effort would help to reduce the amount of information we would have to immediately process. 

The next step that Iyengar suggests to help making choosing easier is to make your options more concrete.  She used a great example that I can relate to with cash vs credit.  We are more inclined to make rash decision and choose to buy things that we may not have really needed/wanted because the money didn’t feel real and it did not feel concrete to us. 

The next step is to have categorizes.  Categorizing makes decision easier to make because as consumers, we can handle categories much easier than we can handle individual products.  I think Zappos is a great example of this.  While sometimes I can get overwhelmed with the options, Zappos offers a wide variety of options that are categorized in a variety of different ways.  This also leads to Iyengar’s last step, which is to condition you for complexity.  Continuing with Zappos, they follow this idea well by starting out with minimal categories and minimal options to choose from.  Once you have made your first initial choice, let’s say shoes, you are then led to another option to make a choice.  This next category offers just a bit more options and slowly conditions you for the ability to handle more options. 

I think all four of Iyengar’s steps are great for helping with choosing.  I am someone who can get overwhelmed easy, so make the options simpler and less-complex can really help with the decision-making.   Some additional steps I may take is to narrow down categories to what my interests are and what I am shopping for.  From a business stand point, knowing your market and sticking to what they are generally interested in can also help reduce any anxiety with customer choosing through thousands of items. 

Hoch, Stephen J., Howard Kunreuther, and Robert E. Gunther. Wharton on Making Decisions. New York: Wiley, 2001. Print.

Iyengar, S. (Director) (2011, November 1). Sheena Iyengar: How to make choosing easier. TEDSalon NY2011. Lecture conducted from TED Talk, .