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THE 9/1 STYLE: CONTROL

Be reasonable, do it my way. That might be taken as the byword for practitioners of the 9/l style. Just as the "one down" 1/9 style is common among subordinates dealing with superiors, so the "one up" 9/1 style is frequently adopted by superiors who are used to bossing rather than managing. To the 9/1 conflict manager, winning is everything, and he sees winning not so much as the achievement of valuable shared goals, but as the adoption of his particular idea or plan. His ultimate personal goal is to get his way, whatever the cost. As long as the score is 9 to 1, he's happy.

I guess this style has some value if you're a crowbar-munching football coach and the group with whom you're having conflict is the other team's defensive line. You want a manager to give no quarter when he strikes out against the competition. The trouble is that a lot of managers tend to see their own teams in the same light. You can get some good motivational results by treating the opposition as if they were dirt. Try that on your own people and one of two things will happen. Either you will get them so used to having your cleats in their back that you'll succeed in completely demotivating them from saying anything but "Yessir." In other words, you'll get the Punishment Effect - and a team of losers. Or they'll get tired of getting beaten up and they'll turn on you. In which case you'll get a face full of cleats, and be looking for another team. Either way, you lose.

The tough-guy managers who adopt a 9/1 conflict management style generally do so for one of two bad reasons. Either they, like their opposite numbers the 1/9 stylists, assume that conflict is always bad, and must be avoided at all costs. Or they actually like conflict, because it gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their superiority. Two diametrically opposed reasons, but the same lousy outcome: a team situation in which it is generally understood that success means doing it his way.  And in which staling your opposing opinion means getting publicly humiliated for mouthing off.

The advantages of the 9/1 style are obvious, and obviously limited. By playing the Infallible Leader role, you get things done, and done quickly. You don't have to hold off on that new ad campaign for the next three weeks while the test market results come in, because you know what the results are going to be and, even if they're not what you think they'll be, you know better than the marketing department anyway, and so you can start the ad campaign now. There's no doubt about it. Making all the decisions yourself does save an awful lot of time.

In addition, the 9/1 stylist gets to have his own way, nearly all the time. That's immediately gratifying to anybody, and especially to those jellyfish in giants' clothing  who need constant external reassurance that they really are in complete charge. I suspect there's a weak, nervous center at the heart of every tough-guy manager, and adopting the "I make the decisions" style makes it easy to disguise that center. It sets up a solid, impregnable image that convinces others - even if it doesn't convince the 9/1 practitioner himself - that he really is Somewhat More than Human.

Did you hear about the guy who dies and goes up to Heaven and is puzzled by the appearance of a bearded old man in a lab coat and surgical mask? The old guy is continually harassing all the angels, ordering them about, telling them they've got to work faster, and so on. The new arrival asks an older resident about him, and is told, "Oh, don't pay any attention to him. That's just God. He thinks he's a doctor."

It's a story with a sobering point. Ask any hospital nurse to describe the average doctor's style of conflict management, or indeed his style of management in general. What you'll hear is an indirect description of the 9/1 style. The attitude among many physicians today is the same attitude that persists among some of the business community's older managers. It's the attitude that "I know best, so if you want to know what to do, just ask me." If you don't think that creates more conflict among team members - whether you're talking about hospital or factory teams - then you haven't been reading the papers.

The disadvantages of the 9/1 style overlap somewhat those of its "reverse," the 1/9 style. In both styles, the attempt to eliminate, rather than manage, conflict reduces the input of team members; creates resentment, timidity, and hostility; lowers general team morale; stifles creativity; inhibits cooperation; and, in general, sets up a thoroughly demotivating atmosphere where "teamwork" is seen, quite realistically, as a promise without any conviction. It should come as no surprise to any one that organizations where the Control style is common among managers have long been falling behind those where a more participatory management style is respected.

The solution? To get from a 9/1 style to the more productive, more motivated Synergy style that I've said is ideal, you need to practice the Reflective Listening skills that I discussed earlier.  If you find yourself "playing God" or "pretending to be a doctor,"
I suggest you reread that material. Learning to listen reflectively is a critical component of any management style in which people's creativity and input is valued. Without it the only manager who is going to be right all the time is the one who has nothing to do, or who is bench coach of the Kansas City Clones. If you're dealing with real live people, you've got to learn how to listen.

Part of this, of course, is reacting to what you hear, and that too is part of Reflective Listening. Since reinforcement is such a major element of the P.R.I.C.E. motivation system, the manager plagued by a God/doctor complex would do well to review as well what I've said about positive Consequences, and about the need to give people "strokes" approximately four times as often as you give them "strikes" for poor Behaviors. First, open your ears. Then, fill their ears with what they want to hear, which is "Thanks for a job well done." Those are the basic, and critical steps in moving from a 9/1 style to the creative Involvement you need.

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