Conflict Management and Negotiation

A resident of San Jose, California, Steve Betando is an educator with over 36 years of experience. He served as the superintendent of the Morgan Hill Unified School District, during which time he received the California Distinguished Schools Gold Ribbon Award. Steve Betando is also a consultant and trainer on conflict management.

Building relationships provide the basis for conflict resolutions. Conflict management refers to the means by which parties can settle disagreements amicably among themselves. There are various conflict resolution techniques. Some of them are as follows:

Compromising and reconciling. This technique involves both parties letting go of something, be it an opinion or otherwise, to locate a middle path from where they can identify a resolution. Rarely can negotiations be settled without compromise and reconciliation.

Problem-solving/Confrontation. With this method, people involved in the conflict or who may have a difference in opinion come forward to discuss the issues at hand with a very open mind. Constructive confrontation refers to confronting the issue, not confronting other parties in an adversarial manner. For success, parties must focus on resolving the conflict and finding the best alternative or solution while understanding the benefits of resolution for all parties.

Smoothing/accommodating. When two parties dissent on an issue and discussions stall, either party can lead a resolving perspective on the situation by stressing points of agreement while recognizing, but de-emphasizing disagreements. Working together on common goals can act as a catalyst to dissolve the tension between the people involved by instilling trust and motivating both sides to resolve the conflict.

How Does Interest-Based Bargaining Work?

With a career of more than 35 years in teaching and education administration, California resident Steve Betando is the current superintendent of Morgan Hill Unified School District. His previous roles include that of principal for Chrysler Elementary School and Eisenhut Elementary School, both in the Stanislaus school district where he eventually served as an assistant superintendent. Steve Betando also works as a leadership development consultant and has conducted training programs on topics like interest-based bargaining.

While bargaining is often seen as a confrontational activity, an interest-based bargaining (IBB) approach seeks to make negotiations more collaborative. Instead of positional bargaining, where parties pit demands or needs against each other and try to get the better deal, IBB involves more conversation and transparency, where groups lay their issues out and then brainstorm on resolutions that will benefit everyone. That is why IBB is also known as win-win bargaining. Another term for it is ‘integrative bargaining’ since the process often integrates a number of contested issues, and the stakeholders trade off on individual matters for an overall outcome where everyone gets some part of what they want.

The first step in an IBB discussion is to identify the issue. Parties then break down the core matter into their individual and shared interests and concerns in it. Clarifying what each group wants out of the negotiation and why is important and necessary for a more empathetic mindset when coming up with solutions. Breaking down the issue may also enable the negotiators to find specific answers that they mutually agree on. A crucial part of shortlisting solutions, therefore, is to create an objective metric for them; standardizing the desired outcomes ensures that parties do not leverage power or lose sight of the goal where everyone benefits. Finally, once everyone has addressed their needs and expectations, they decide on the solution plan together, rather than one group taking the lead.

Morgan Hill Students Learn Awareness

A former district superintendent, Steve Betando has worked in education administration for close to four decades. Since his graduation from San Jose University in California, he has taken leadership positions in the Morgan Hill, Fremont, and Stanislaus school districts, serving as a teacher, principal, and curriculum developer, and chief human resource officer. Steve Betando has also conducted workshops and courses in leadership development, strategic planning, conflict resolution and anti-bullying initiatives.

As a measure to combat sexual abuse and violence, The Morgan Hill Unified District School has established the program Be Seen and Be Heard. With the 2021 sessions starting in October, it is a set of presentations for different age groups among K-12 students that teach them to recognize and defend against sexual abuse. The school district administration is distributing them to the institutions under their purview; alongside an author’s introduction addressed to the parents, Be Seen and Be Heard includes an hour-long session and four follow-ups to be scheduled over the course of the year.

As a leading district in the United States to use the Be Seen and Heard Program, Morgan Hill has been conducting presentations on this difficult but ubiquitous issue for several years while carefully varying the messages depending on the grade levels so that even the youngest students can gain awareness on staying safe. As such, the rubrics cover an expansive range of topics, from introducing second-grade students to the concepts of body safety and using one’s voice as a safety tool, to talking to high-schoolers about the connections between abuse and bullying, and the the dangers of sex trafficking.

Managing Technology in the Classroom from Set-Up

After studying at the San Jose State University and graduating with a bachelor’s in psychology, Steve Betando served as a teacher and eventually into the principalship of Eisenhut Elementary School in the Stanislaus Union School District. Steve Betando’s service to the education system eventually let to his position Superintendent of Morgan Hill Unified School District in California. Back in 1991, he organized a workshop to address technology in the classroom with practice proven strategies still in use today.

There are certain instructional techniques teachers can adopt to manage technology in the class, and many people may underestimate how important it is to begin with the set-up of the classroom. The teacher should arrange the tables in a manner that allows them to view the screens in the classroom. The students must be engaged in the technology and, at the same time, the teacher has a wide span of surveillance can engaged with the students. The thoughtful classroom design must create optimum opportunity for that functional and instructionally appropriate engagement.

Beyond just arrangement, the teacher or instructor needs to establish the classroom procedures by showing and repeating. Students should understand what is expected of them and how to deal with any difficulties that arise from their usage of the technology. Numbering the technology components helps this, as well as assisting with technological support communications also gives students a sense of ownership.

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