Recently, I have been struggling to maintain my report with a Parent. Her daughter has had temperature well over 100 and our school policy is to send that child home for 24 hours when it spikes like that. The mother feels her daughter is not sick, while the school sees something different (temperature and extreme behavior that is untypical). She was so unset when we called the second day when she had a fever that she showed major resistance to picking up her daughter.
My Principal took the brunt of the verbal attacks and I ignored. I knew that she was not mad at any of us, but mad at the situation. It is very difficult for her to take time off of work and I cannot imagine doing that as a single mom with 5 children. Yesterday, there was a family team meeting and I used some strategies I learned this week from the Nonviolent Communication website. I was very clear and specific in my concerns and expressed what I/the school needed. I focused on my main concern and expressed how a plan needed to be in place.
So... my two strategies were
1) Ignoring until the person had time to calm down (aka taking all their concerns into consideration), therefore leading us to both engage in effective communication.
2) being very concise and specific in my concerns.
How have you learned to be more effective communicators as it relates to conflict resolution skills?
I have experienced this same conflict many times over the years. While it is important for us to be empathetic to the parent's fears over losing her job, we also have to consider the importance of keeping everyone healthy. I think the strategy to be very concise in explaining the program's needs is critical.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Teri
I understand how you feel you want to have empathy and still follow the rules that is very important I would say maybe often just communicating with the parent at a conference and always remind them of the policies and procedures and suggest to them to have back pick up people for emergency such as this but your strategys was very good because you dont want to make the situations worse so do what you did was very helpful thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTeri,
ReplyDeleteI feel you handled this situation very well. Giving the parent, and staff, time to calm down is a great first step in conflict resolution. Then focusing on the issues that affect the school instead of attacking the parent's character is crucial to helping the parent see things your way.
Did the parent come up with a plan to help?
Abby,
ReplyDeleteWaiting until everyone had cooled is the best thing you could have done. In today's hurry-up world too many people are relying on things to get done right now. We want resolutions and explanations. We sometimes forget that patience is a virtue and that the best things take time. In this case you made the right choice and you made a mountain situation turn back into a mole hill. Great job.
Tina
I liked your tactic in dealing with the conflict. Not attacking the parent's character was crucial and very professional.
ReplyDelete