2021-03-19: Negotiation, Persuasion and Conflict for Systems Engineers (Scott)
Date: Friday, March 19, 2021
Speaker: Mr. Zane Scott (ASEP), Vice President for Professional Services for Vitech Corporation
Presentation: This March, Mr. Zane Scott (ASEP), Vice President for Professional Services for Vitech Corporation and long-time member of the INCOSE Chesapeake Chapter, delivered a tutorial on the topic of Negotiations, Persuasion, and Conflict for Systems Engineers. Mr. Scott opened his tutorial with some background conveying how his experiences with matters of conflict resolution. His extensive career experience spans that of a criminal trial lawyer, labor/management facilitator and trainer, large group mediations facilitator, negotiations consultant in support of the DoD, police hostage negotiations special teams member, and finally to his current position of vice president of professional services for Vitech.
Mr. Scott's tutorial covered an important soft skill set that many technical professionals often neglect, but its soft skills that often are the determinant between an undistinguished and a distinguished performing professional. The ability to not just communicate, but to do it well, is often a pivotal factor for career advancement. Mr. Scott’s tutorial explored in particular how to best go about resolving conflicts between a variety of parties and events that can be encountered in both our lives and careers. Mr. Scott provided a variety of anecdotal scenarios to illustrate his many points. The discussions covered a broad range of scenarios for conflict management that highlighted the importance of understanding how the intersection of communication, relationships, and culture are key to managing any conflict. Attendees were provided (as pdf) with a copy of a paper published by Mr. Scott that covered how to apply a full analytic method to evaluation of alternative options when conducting conflict resolutions.
The tutorial ended with some strategies for conducting conflict negotiations. Key to any negotiation is the ability to focus on people's interests and not their positions or their issues. Most often people will take a position on an issue that is contrary to their interests, and attendees learned that these interests should be dealt with primarily.
Attendees left the tutorial well armed to attack their own projects.
