What would you have done if you could turn back time?
Gilly has been selected to be the program director of an event in her company. Being the program director, she is responsible for drafting a blueprint for the sequence of events and designing of activities for the event as well as preparing the props required. After obtaining approval from the overall-in-charge Aldan, she proceeded with the preparation of the props.
However, when the preparation was almost completed after two weeks, Aldan suddenly dropped by and told Gilly he objected to the blueprint and demanded her to submit a new draft by the next day before walking off. He did not state any reasons for his sudden change in decision. Gilly was taken by surprise as there was not much time from the actual day itself. Moreover, everything had to be started from scratch again.
Later that night, Gilly was composing a text message while watching a drama serial. She wanted to grumble and complain about the indecisiveness of Aldan to her close pal, Alden. However, as she was rather distracted from watching the drama, she sent the text message to Aldan instead. Gilly realized her blunder but decided to feign ignorance as she did not know what to do.
Throughout the rest of the preparation phase of the event, Aldan was very cold towards Gilly and did not speak to her unless it was necessary. The event proceeded smoothly according to Gilly’s second blueprint and it was only after the camp that she realized there were certain restrictions for the activities due to safety reasons that were implemented by the chairman during the eleventh hour. What should Gilly and Aldan have done to avoid such a conflict?
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI think it was silly on Gilly's part to send the message to Aldan (shouldn't she be more careful when two people have almost similar names and she's complaining about one to the other? :P).
Okay. Now more seriously... I think the problem could've easily been avoided had Aldan briefly stated the reason for the change when asking Gilly for one. At least, Gilly could've tried asking Aldan about it later instead of grumbling about him. Since Gilly had gone to the extent of complaining to her friend 'and sending the message to Aldan himself by mistake', I think she should go and apologize first. She should try explaining that she had been working had over the previous plans and that when Aldan asked for a change all of a sudden, it made her feel bad since she had to do everything all over again. She must also let Aldan know that he should've told her why he was asking for the change, considering the effort she had put in. This way, Aldan would realize that Gilly was not mad for no reason and that he should also have been careful. I think this should settle the problem! :)
Krithika
Hi Roger,
ReplyDeleteSomehow i feel the names are related to me in a way or another, but I not recall any incidences which i'm so unprofessional :X .
Anyway back to the point, the original problem lies with the fact that Aldan is being very unprofessional as an overall in charge for suddenly deciding someone to redo a task at the very last minute. There should be some explanation or sort for this decision so as to make the person feel justified to work hard and do the necessary amendment. People act based on reason, and a unjusitified task given due to position of power/authority has lower efficiency. As a overall-in-charge and a professional, I don't think what he did was appropriate.
On the other hand, Gilly felt unjustified and she should approach Aldan and ask him to explain the reason for the amendment. She has a responsibility to seek out the reason for the overall-in-charge might have personal reasons for not explaining as well.
Regards,
Alden
Hi Roger,
ReplyDeleteI feel that Aldan should have exercised more EQ when telling Gilly to redo the task in the last minute. Perhaps he could provide reasons or volunteer to help out Gilly in redoing part of the task since the project's deadline is drawing near.
On the other hand, I feel that Gilly could have been more direct in seeking reasons for the sudden change instead of bottling up her unhappiness. Also, since Gilly had misunderstood Aldan, she should take the first step to apologise for her mistake.
Regards,
Ying Cong
Hey Roger!
ReplyDeleteI feel that if the issue bothered Gilly so much she should have confronted Aldan but ofcourse in a polite manner. Complaining to her friend Alden would have made her feel better maybe at that time but in order to solve the problem and other future misunderstandings she should have talked to Aldan.
Moreover, I feel that Aldan also had mistakes from his side. He should have told Gilly the rationale behind him asking her to redo the proposal before making her re submit it in order to have avoided any such conflicts.
Even now, I feel that Gilly should apologise to Aldan and sort their problems out. Aldan too should forgive Gilly and patch things up.
Cheers
Preeti
Dear Roger
ReplyDeleteWhere is your summation and how would you resolve this?
Regards
Happy
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi there!
ReplyDeleteBasically i think the aforementioned scenario happens quite often where our messages reach the wrong people and matters like this can rarely be undone. Therefore, I think it's better to resolve the conflict in an appropriate manner rather than to let it end off with a sour note.
Personally, I feel that it is important to understand different's parties position in this conflict. Firstly, Gilly should be sincere and apologise to Aldan because she was at fault for badmouthing him after all. However, Aldan should also try to understand Gilly's feelings at that point of time and hence be more forgiving. Both of them could perhaps make reasonable compromises by being more open and frank with each other about their feelings to avoid future conflict.