Memo for BDO

Role-Play Activity: Tanaka Response to Conflict

Your role-play character: Tanaka, Regional Managing Partner

Part 1: ​On your own, read your character’s background information.

About you:

You are a regional managing partner at BDO and have worked in this position for 8 months. You have become

a favorite with top executives, known for your fresh ideas and ability to compel others to follow your lead.

You have great potential for promotion within this company. Sam is a top performer at BDO and his office has

outperformed other BDO offices (with annual revenue growth of 6% compared to the company average of

3-5%), which is due in part to Sam’s years of experience and long list of contacts.

Confidential Information (Sam does NOT know the following):

Your feelings about the situation:

The consulting firm’s findings showed that reaching out to new markets through a marketing campaign can

help increase BDO’s growth. You want to see this new marketing plan succeed and believe it will, if everyone

actively participates. You are eager to see the company expand and grow its market share both domestically

and globally.

What you want (your interests, what you most care about):

You need to have all your regional offices consistently enter their customer leads and communication touch

points into the CRM system. Ideally, you want Sam to be open-minded about this new strategy and assist the

company in achieving real growth.

Additional Background Information:

Being a regional manager is an important advancement for your long-term career path. You want to impress

your new bosses. You feel lucky to have started around the same time that BDO is implementing this new

strategy because it gives you an opportunity to highlight your leadership skills.

Early indicators are showing that offices using the CRM tool have improved their performance. Your boss is

very ambitious and has high expectations of you. He is very concerned that Sam’s office is not implementing

the CRM. He has tasked you with turning things around and will place you on a PIP (Performance

Improvement Plan) if you are unsuccessful.

Additionally, you suspect that Sam also applied for the job that you now hold. So far you have been unable to

verify if this is true.

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Role-Play Activity: Tanaka Response to Conflict

Problem Statement:​ ​ BDO has implemented a new strategy that requires all offices to use the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. After three months, Sam (local office managing partner) still has

not implemented the CRM system in his office. Tanaka (regional managing partner) has scheduled a meeting

with Sam to address this issue.

Part 2: ​ On your own, organize your thoughts before your difficult conversation.

1. What outcomes do you want as a result of your difficult conversation with Sam?

2. What are your arguments to persuade/convince Sam to implement the CRM system (Customer

Relationship Management)?

3. When talking to Sam, how do you intend to handle the conflict? (i.e. competing, collaborating,

compromising, avoiding, accommodating)

Part 3:​ Pair up with a Sam (white handout) and hold your difficult conversation.

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Role-Play Activity: Tanaka Response to Conflict

Part 4​: After your difficult conversation, debrief with your partner:

1. Rate your conflict outcome?

2. What was the outcome of your conflict? (win-win, win-lose, lose-lose)

3. What was the biggest issue during your conversation?

4a. How did you manage the conflict during your difficult conversation? ​(Did you: raise your voice, feel uncomfortable, try to win, etc.?) 4b. How did your partner manage the conflict during your difficult conversation?

5. Do you think that your strategy (from Part 2) was successful? Why?

6. If you could re-do any part of the conversation, what would you change? Why?

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