Enhance Customer Relationships Through Collaborative Conflict Resolution

Any time two or more parties work together there often are different—and sometimes opposing—goals, concerns, priorities, perspectives and needs.

While not always a comfortable topic for individuals or organizations, ignoring or avoiding conflict actually can do more harm than good. As noted in the book, “From Conflict to Creativity,” authors Sy, Barbara, and Daryl Landau write: “When we ignore or withdraw from conflict, we are neither trying to achieve substantive results nor addressing relationships with other people … Although this approach may buy us some short-term peace, it has some serious drawbacks.”

Mismanaging or evading issues can escalate conflicts and cause them to get out of control. On the other hand, understanding that conflict is normal, inevitable and necessary helps divergent parties productively confront issues while maintaining or even enhancing the strength of the relationship.

To remain intentional about fostering a work culture that confronts conflicts in a collaborative, solution-oriented manner, training based on 12 operating principles discussed in the book, “Accelerate: High Leverage Leadership for Today’s World” (Frindt and Frindt) can help.

The following strategies and scenarios explore some of these operating principles and how contract manufacturers and their customers can apply them to embrace confrontation, cultivate stronger relationships, advance innovation, and distinguish themselves as an exceptional vendor and partner.

Listen Up

In medical device manufacturing, conflicts stem from a variety of reasons—some preventable, some
not. What matters is not whether conflicts exist, but how they are dealt with.

An operating principle that’s fundamental to quickly addressing and resolving conflicts is: Listen newly, be intentionally slow to understand. This essentially means that both parties need to take the time to thoughtfully and respectfully listen to each other.

The importance of listening cannot be overemphasized. The most frequent problem in conflict situations is that one or both parties feel they are not being listened to.

Having the problem solved actually comes in a distant second to being heard.

Suppose a client asks his contract manufacturer to add a feature to his product that was not in the original specification or requests a delivery date that is earlier than initially planned. Simply pointing to the spec or supplier agreement as the reason for why an adjustment can’t be made doesn’t help resolve the issue. Even though many people naturally default to this approach and defend why they are not at fault, it only serves to pull everyone back into the conflict andactually can mar the relationship.

Contrast this with listening attentively to the facts at hand, the needs of each party, and all the creative possibilities for optimizing a solution, which brings everyone together in alignment and clears the path for productive dialogue.

Be Constructive, Not Destructive

Productive dialogue is the route to effectively and collaboratively managing conflict.

As noted in “Accelerate,” when dialogue is most productive, both parties are:

• Interacting and connecting as a team;

• Creating an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and safety; and

• Openly sharing knowledge, information and resources.

Though all of the operating principles support productive dialogue, a few notable ones that emphasize constructive communication to enhance the relationship and achieve mutually beneficial

outcomes are:

• Make it safe for each other and myself;

• Declare that each person’s contributions are valid and valuable; and

• Deal with real issues and situations.

As an example, in a situation where a customer wants to change the scope of a project, “dealing with real issues” means asking questions such as: “How can we do this faster?” and “Where might we look to find this solution?”

Productive dialogue asks issue-oriented questions, such as, “What resources would be required to accomplish what they need?” instead of people-oriented questions such as, “How can they expect us to just change direction?”

A great deal of time, energy, and resources are wasted on unproductive dialogue around conflicts. Keeping the focus on the issue at hand and contributing to solutions helps create a culture based in possibility instead of one based on blame.

Stay Accountable

For conflicts to remain opportunities for growth and relationship building, another important operating principle is: “Beresponsible for what gets heard.”

When communication is constructive and focused on adding value, each person involved in the conflict needs to take ownership for what they say and how it’s received. Productive dialogues quickly can derail if one person says something and another person receives it as an affront.

Suppose you’re in a client meeting where ideas are being thrown around about the best way to mark a product. The client prefers it done one way, which would require using an older, outdated machine.

Your manufacturing team would prefer to use a new, more advanced machine that was just procured.

You might matter-of-factly mention that the new machine is superior to the old one because it better adheres to regulatory standards and improves the integrity of the product. Your client, on the other hand, hears that his idea is “old fashioned” or “violates regulatory standards” and that he is foolish for making such a request.

While that’s not at all what you meant to convey, putting it back on him as “his” problem or that he’s too “sensitive” isn’t constructive. That only serves to break down communication, impair a collaborative relationship, and stall innovative solutions.

When you are not heard in the way that you intended to be, stay committed to clarifying the issues, but put forth effort to reconnect with your client. This means taking responsibility for what gets heard by apologizing, clarifying, restating and doing what’s necessary to get back on track.

Connect for Clarity,Commit for Confidence

The 12 operating principles, as noted in the book by Suzanne and Dwight Frindt, are incredibly beneficial when embracing conflicts with customers and achieving mutually beneficial outcomes. However, they also are useful in preventing conflicts from happening in the first place.

Bringing together multidisciplinary perspectives at the outset of a project draws out important questions and answers that can alleviate confusion and misunderstanding—two elements that often sprout conflict.

For instance, if the business development teams of an OEM and its contract designer/

manufacturer are focused on compressing a product’s lead-time from 18 months to 12 months, they might not think to address how the device will be distributed.

However, if regulatory affairs and quality assurance, procurement and engineering teams also are at the table, they are more likely to bring up questions such as, “Will this be a U.S.-only release,” or “Will we need to prepare for European distribution as well?”

Answers to these questions can shed light on whether or not UL (Underwriters Laboratories) and/or CE (Conformité Européenne or European Conformity) marking approval needs to be taken into account. These processes can take time and affect the probability of the contract designer/manufacturer being able to deliver on its promise of a 12-month lead time.

When cross-functional team members productively dialogue about the specs, distribution plans, market conditions and expectations, product launch timelines, and expected use of product—among other things—the contract manufacturer gains clarity about what it is committing to while the customer gains confidence that his expectations are fully understood and will be met. This approach requires more upfront time investment, but the conflict it prevents or significantly reduces is well worth it.

See the Forest Through The Trees

Even if the contract manufacturer and its customer are verbally on the same page with regard to warranties, procedures and processes, a verbal understanding isn’tadequate—especially when it comes to conflict prevention and resolution.

It’s imperative that all parameters clearly be written out in a supplier agreement at the very beginning of a project. A solid supplier agreement will contain all of your mutual expectations, including price breaks, lead times, quality requirements, payment terms, and other hopes.

An unambiguous, specific supplier agreement—that is reviewed and signed by both parties—protects the customer and contract manufacturer and makes it easier to address and resolve issues should they arise. The ultimate goal of a well-developed supplier agreement is that it never needs to be reverted back to after it is signed. Its primary purpose is to guide the parties through sufficiently deep conversation to ensure that everyone is aligned on the same finish line.

Conflict … It Happens

Situations will arise where your organization finds itself with a need that’s at odds with your partner’s needs.

However, by cultivating a corporate culture that embraces conflicts in a way that constructively confronts issues while concurrently focuses on enhancing the relationship, positive outcomes will be created that take your medical device company to new heights and contribute new solutions to benefit the marketplace.

Tricia Rodewald is the director of marketing and alliances and Johanna Casas is thecustomer service manager for Pro-Dex Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based company that designs, develops and manufactures surgical devices, motors, metal components, and sub-assemblies for world-class medical device OEMs.