MARIETTA - Cobb school board members were scolded Thursday during a training session for their inability to recite the district's mission statement. Members, Superintendent Fred Sanderson and the district's attorney, Glenn Brock, were also told that conflict isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Dr. Richard Voyles, president of the Conflict Resolution Academy, led the nearly 4 hour training, which began at 1 p.m. All board members except David Morgan attended.

When the conflict manager asked board members to recite the district's mission statement, silence fell on the conference room at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce. Only after a few minutes was Sanderson able to find the statement in his notes and read it aloud.

"This is a huge problem," Voyles said of the board's inability to articulate the mission statement. "Even if you had a mission statement and you didn't know what it was, you need your hands slapped. Because the mission statement is everything. You can do all the strategic planning you want, but unless that strategic plan leads to and creates a mission statement, you don't know where you're going."

Voyles explained what he said was the dire result of not working together and letting the mission slip away.

"I need you to imagine, every day, what this county will look like if this mission fails," he said. "You've got to understand that life as you know it is gone, if you fail. Life as you know it disappears in Cobb County. And I can guarantee you that if it happens in Cobb County, none of the other counties can manage the spillover."

Voyles explained how board members could use the statement to work toward the goal of building a better district. He also demonstrated to them how they could use the mission as negotiation leverage to get what they want and need as board members.

Voyles said each board member has to trust that they are all working toward the same mission, and when each person comes to the table with a different option for success, they have to weigh these options individually to see which one will effectively and efficiently get them to their mission.

And having conflict is OK. In fact, Voyles said, without conflict you can't have change, opportunity and even growth. But, he said the key for everyone, the board especially, is to learn how to effectively manage that conflict.

"Conflict is inevitable," Voyles said. "It is impossible to be in any group, any organization, any relationship and not have conflict. If you want to have any change - if you're going to have growth, if you want to have community in this county - you're going to have conflict. If you want to have learning, you want to have effectiveness, you want to have success on this board - you've got to have conflict."

Voyles said his presentations usually take all day, but because of the board's limited schedule, he was forced to cram all of his material into a half-day session.