Fall 15, 124
Kage had let his previous fetch die off – the one that had watched Naru. The faelnir continued to garner the old aelf's attention and so he'd done away with the wooden bird that had watched him. Now, Kage had ten of them built out of various speciies of medium to small sized birds. These were made of actual birds that he had captured this very evening as they slept – it was a simple matter of commanding trees to move around and envelop them when they least suspected it.
From there, he had laced plant life through their dead bodies, turning them into fetches that could and hear and see appropriately. He sent them out towards Naru's home and commanded them to circle around in a wide radius while keeping an eye on Naru. Only one of them was commanded to stay close to him.
Why was Kage so interested? Well, he couldn't say for certain. A part of him thought that Naru had the potential to be a good sundering target in the future. Another part of him just liked to keep tabs on as many unique faelnir as possible.
When he made his fetches, he also decided to construct a deadsight mirror using a gram of saolite that he'd purchased that evening. He'd actually purchased a little more than a globe's worth of saolite in preparation for his Lich aspirations, but he had a handful of grams set aside for re-establishing his deadsight mirrors. As it only required a gram to make, even someone not very skilled in ensorcelling was capable of making them. He used some basic ensorcelling tools to infuse a mirror at his desk with a gram of saolite, and before he knew it he was looking through the eyes of one of his fetches.
He had then sent his fetches flying off to go find Naru. Hours later and the sun had risin. Naru made his way, begrudgingly, through town to the location where the college was located. He wanted lessons on how to run an effective business and so he had paid for just that. Or, rather, his boss had paid for them. It was more like brainwashing in Naru's opinion. He thought himself above such matters but he still tried to have a positive outlook "Let's just get this out of the way."
Naru strolled into the classroom and took a seat right at the front. If he was going to spend his time just to be here then he was going to get an earful. The other students slowly filtered in and eventually the class started.
"Alright class, I'd like to start today off by talking about a classic issue. Many times in business, there is a failure to face what the problem is in a situation." The professor stopped when Naru raised his hand and interrupted, "isn't that common sense? Let's move onto something more difficult so I don't waste my hard earned money here."
The professor straightened his elaborate glasses in a jaunty manner and replied, "Ah, another one of those students. Tell me then, if you were in such a situation as this, I would love to know what your solution would be. Imagine your business is suffering from competition, as all businesses do. Now imagine that you decide to introduce new products to the market, products that would cause more customers to your store, products that your competitors offer that you don't. You do all the math and you figure you can increase your profits by nearly a quarter! Congratulations!" the rest of the class laughed. Naru raised an eyebrow and leaned forward, waiting for the professor to come to a point.
"Tell me all the potential issues that you would likely run into and how you would solve them. In your response, please use examples from two past business failures." Naru sat there dumbfounded. He was by no means a novice when it came to running a jewelry shop, but this was a challenging question. He doubted he could have even repeated the scenario even if he tried.
"I'm sure you got in based on your merits as a local businessman, but everyone is here to learn. If you feel you have nothing to gain then you can be on your way," the professor said in a very friendly tone. He had clearly had this discussion many times in the past and had refined his method of resolving it. Naru would proceed to shut up and listen.
"Right then, this particular scenario actually occurred in the past and the result was this: The business put out their new products, but had completely and utterly failed to take into consideration that they had poor labor relations and how inefficient their processes were. The business tried to make products that couldn't be made without throwing a lot of money at their issues. If their plan included ample time to improve relations and refine their process, they would not have gone under. The lesson here my students is to face the real problems. Without identifying and analyzing each obstacle you don't have a plan of attack... you just have a wishlist."
It was at this point that Naru noticed that everyone around him was scribbling furiously into their notebooks. The man had brought nothing but the clothes on his back and a sheet of paper with the classroom number. He'd definitely remember to bring the proper tools next time. He was actually enjoying the stories that the professor told since he could picture himself being in the exact same situation in the future.
"Now, to get to the meat of today's lesson. Conflict management. There are many conflicts that arise in the workplace, as I'm sure you all know. There are also many ways of resolving these conflicts. Many times you will not be there to solve everything and you probably don't want to bother yourself with trivial matters anyways. Instead, you should train your employees on effective problem solving methods." Naru leaned forward even more. This was a sore subject for him because the employees at the shop didn't seem to want to do anything except complain all day.
"So tell me, what are some effective ways you all have dealt with employee complaints."
"I usually just have the employees work it out on their own," one woman said, "I don't care how they do it so long as I don't have to deal with that mess."
"I do the exact opposite. All complaints have to go through me," a man in the back shouted. More testimonials followed and Naru even brought up that he usually ended up mediating most conflicts as well. It was half an hour of back and forth discussion before the professor quieted everyone down and continued.
"As I expected, everyone here has some experience in conflict management already. I'd like to offer the idea that handling conflicts is a lot like negotiation. In fact, I would make the claim that they are one and the same. You have one or more parties grievances negotiating a solution. In most scenarios, the one with complaints will confront the one causing them problems. In other scenarios, they may write a strongly worded message detailing their complaints. For simple matters, I would recommend all employees to follow one of these methods."
"Write a strongly worded message," Naru thought. He had never in his life thought of writing a message to complain. It seemed almost too formal to be a real solution. [/i]If I wrote a message to my boss he'd just throw it into the fire, most likely.[/i]" Naru's opinion must have been shared throughout the class because the professor skipped a beat.
"Ah, yes the written complaint. You see, when you are angry you are not in the right state of mind. For your own sake you will not submit an emotional message because then that message can be used against you later. Anger tends to cause people to exaggerate problems, so to write a proper message you must be in a calm state in order to accurately list the facts. If you claim something that cannot be proven or that is out of scope with reality it simply is not believable. Put yourselves in the shoes of the offender for a moment. Do you think you will be more willing to fix an error if you are being yelled at or if you are presented the issues in a calmly manner?"
The professor's explanation made sense, but it still didn't sit well with the man. "I'll try it anyways. The worst thing that can happen is not work."
"Now, assume that you have a complaint that the employees cannot handle on their own. Now you are forced to mediate or ignore the problem entirely. For issues that will have no lasting consequence, the latter is a perfectly acceptable course of inaction. But if you must mediate, it is imperative to focus on the facts. The only situation that is difficult to mediate is when the only evidence available is the word of two or more different parties." The professor stopped long enough to take a giant gulp of water.
"In such cases, I have two suggestions for today's lesson. The first is to have the parties state what they must have for the conflict to be resolved. The other is to try to expand the pie. The first is important because it gets a lot of senseless arguing out of the way and puts everything on the table. If one party will not be satisfied without an apology, then knowing that going in will make things a whole lot easier.
The second is a little more complicated. By expanding the pie, I mean to add more factors into the mix. If two employees are arguing about work schedules, then it's possible to throw in deal sweeteners for each side that makes the 'deal' less painful for both sides. We will continue tomorrow with more examples. Don't forget to do your required reading and be ready to answer questions. Good day class."
"Has it really been an hour," Naru asked himself as the professor and classmates quickly bustled out of class. He had learned so much today that he wasn't sure if he even wanted to go home. He wanted to stay here and listen more to the professor's enticing stories. The man's opinions on the prospects of higher education were starting to change for the better.
Kage had glanced at the mirror several times during the morning when he'd gotten up from his sleep. He thought Naru's day as being rather boring. He might have to spice up the faelnir's life if he kept going to class.
