Conflict Management Strategy Revealed
Conflict is inevitable. No matter where you work, sooner or later you’re going to find yourself in a disagreement with someone. We’ve all heard of disputes that erupt into expensive and divisive lawsuits. A simple personality conflict between two members of a team can cripple productivity and in the end leave the entire team feeling angry and betrayed. The following strategy describes a successful approach to resolving conflict.
We’re taught at an early age to defer to someone else, to take our problems to the teacher, to mom and dad, to the police. At the same time, trying to address potential disputes before they arise with detailed policies of appropriate behavior is ultimately unsatisfying as well. The suggestion is that if we have enough rules, somehow things will be fair and everyone will be treated fairly. Uniformity doesn’t necessarily produce fairness, and rules can’t address every real situation. For managers to assume they have dealt with an issue in the workplace because they have passed a rule or a policy is, at best, a naive assumption.
The question then, is not “How can we avoid conflict?” but “How can we manage it?” If conflict can’t be eliminated, we can at least deal with it constructively.
Conflicts between work employees can spring from any number of sources; miscommunication, unmet expectations, feelings that one’s contributions have not been acknowledged. Conflicts and disputes seldom have a simple cause, but they arise when people choose to make their differences into disagreements.
If conflict is the result of individual choices, managers that want to successfully manage and resolve conflicts must create an environment where employees can make the right choices. the optimum strategy depends on building the right group norms in the first place. If a employees are open to differences effectively to reach good decisions, then employees will be able to express differences appropriately and effectively resolve them.
The following items must be addressed and managed to successfully manage conflict.
Be Comfortable Dealing With Conflict
Being open to disagreement is sometimes difficult. Most people are afraid of conflict. That’s the reason for rules in the first place. But rules designed to eliminate conflict may allow situations to smolder and then erupt if employees do not have the opportunity to express their concerns. Much of the way you do that is not by trying to squelch the conflict and getting everybody to calm down, but by allowing everybody to voice their concerns. You can generally move people to a place where they are saying, “Okay, now what are we going to do about it?”
Acting quickly to air the issues is better psychologically for all the employees as well. People do not like to be embroiled in conflict or have disputes, so the quicker it’s over with, the better for everyone and the faster you can move on.
Find The Source of the Conflict
The tendency to look to some superior authority to resolve disputes frequently leads to unsatisfactory conclusions. Thus, the ability of employees to solve problems close to the source, at the team level, will also contribute to a healthy conflict resolution process. For example, if a factory manager walks around a couple of times a day to inspect whether people are bypassing the safety goggles, you will get people trying to conceal what they are doing. On the other hand, if a coworker who is working down the line from you is the safety contact person, there is no hiding what you are doing. And when that person says, “Look, don’t be a fool”, it’s much closer to the source. It’s a whole different kind of interaction.
In addition, bringing in outside authority may too quickly turn the process into a fact finding investigation that puts everyone involved on the defensive. The person who made the allegation says, “Why are you looking at me?” And the person who’s accused of inappropriate behavior says, “You’re trying to get me fired.” For these reasons, attempting to resolve disputes at the team level is more likely to lead to a constructive result.
Addressing the interests of the parties in conflict is also more likely to lead to a satisfying resolution. Very often people put things in positional terms, “I want him fired”. With active listening, managers and dispute mediators can help move the disagreement away from demands and toward a discussion of each party’s legitimate interests.
Lessons Learned
When employees are able to learn from the disagreement and apply lessons learned to new situations, they will be able to resolve those new situations more efficiently. This may be the toughest element to work with, especially on an organizational level. Most organizations have what can be thought of as serious learning disability. But on the team level the opportunity for learning may be less difficult. For example, you might have teams that have had a problem with unfair job promotion, so some people had more opportunity to qualify for higher pay increases. In those cases, where the conflict has been surfaced and then resolved and addressed by the team, there’s a much higher chance that the next time somebody starts showing favoritism in those ways, the team will be able to say, “No, we dealt with this last year.
Conflict Do’s
Practice some self recognition. Only rarely does a conflict arise without contributions from both parties. Very often people tend to project it, and say, “They made me do this”. Employees should try to recognize when they are angry about a situation, and what their role in creating the situation really is.
Be careful about what is put in writing. Despite the advice of many lawyers, memos, letters, and emails can exacerbate and escalate the conflict.
Conflict Don’ts
Involve more people in the process than you need to. Gossip about a conflict can derail attempts to resolve it amicably.
Address the subject while you’re angry. The resulting discussion probably won’t be very constructive, and may have negative effects. Find an appropriate time to engage with the other person.
Summary
While conflict is inevitable, it doesn’t have to be destructive. Management experts point out that you can’t assume everyone is happy just because no complaints are being aired. Conflicts can seethe beneath the surface, working them out openly can create new opportunities for your employees.
The wonderful thing about dispute and conflict resolution is that when managed effectively, not only does it help to address many conflicts that can pull you down, but it liberates all sorts of energy. Conflicts constructively addressed not only avoid something that would have been otherwise festering and difficult, but they also usually lead to insights and opportunities that might no be seen otherwise.
Dennis Sommer is a widely respected and world renowned authority on sales, business development and leadership performance improvement. He is a leading adviser, author, and speaker providing clients with practical strategies that improve personal and organization performance. Dennis can be reached at Dennis@btrconline.com or http://www.btrconline.com
Six Foundational Reasons for Managing Your Time
Most of us know how to manage our time. It is pretty simple really. What most of us miss are compelling reasons to manage our time. We know the “how” but miss the “why.” Here are six foundational reasons I have that motivate me to manage my time and myself properly.
It is a matter of stewardship. I view my life as not my own. I am merely a steward of it. I am given control over it for some 70 years and I should make wise decisions with it! This is a great sense of responsibility that compels me to manage my time.
It is a matter of personal fulfillment. When I get to the end of my life I want to be able to feel a sense of pride and satisfaction that I have lived well, helped others, and achieved much. This drives me to not waste time but to use it wisely.
It is a matter of providing for and being responsible to your friends and family. I owe some of my time – serious amounts – to my friends and family. If I let myself get out of control, they suffer the loss and that is something I do not want for them. I manage myself and my time so that I can give valuable portions of it to those who matter most.
It is a matter of accomplishment and purpose. I manage myself and my time because I want to fulfill my mission here. That is to use my abilities to enhance the lives of others. If I don’t manage myself, I hinder my ability to accomplish what I want and to fulfill my purpose. This drives me to manage right.
It is a matter of self-control. This and number six are closely aligned. One of the reasons I manage myself closely is because I can! Imagine that. What separates us from the animals is that we do not live by instinct, but by self-control and choice.
It is a matter of choice. See number five. I can choose when and where I will spend my resources. That in and of itself sounds like fun!
I am sure you can come up with more reasons, and I would encourage you to do so!
About The Author:
Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of
Made for Success, a company helping individuals and organizations turn
their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and
achieve their dreams.
To see Chris “live” at the upcoming Jim Rohn Weekend Event as he speaks on
the subject of Secrets of Influence go to
http://Chris-Widener.InspiresYOU.com/ or call 800-929-0434.
Innovation Management – idea selection and valuation issues
Innovation is different and distinct from creativity in that it is idea selection, development and commercialisation as opposed to creativity, which is problem identification and idea generation. The core issue with innovation management is, therefore, how to select those ideas that are most likely to succeed?
Ideas have to pass though an idea funnel as most organizations lack the resources to try out all their good ideas. The Economist (2003) states that 3000 bright ideas result in 100 worthwhile projects, which are winnowed down to four development programmes. And four such development programmes are required to stand any chance of getting one winner.
Within the idea funnel, ideas must regularly pass GO and KILL points. Here it is decided whether an idea should remain in order to ascertain its potential or be killed off and make way for a new idea. The selection process can be difficult – drop an idea and you may have lost that one gem; keep it in and you disallow another potentially good idea reaching fruition.
Certain ideas have more probability of success than others.
a) Some ideas will naturally have cultural, technical or other impediments. Condom use in Africa to prevent AIDS is subject to cultural taboos. Non-carbon fuel cars must beat back resistance from the oil industry. E-commerce suffers from fear of Internet fraud. Impediments can be plotted against the S-curve in order to generate a risk profile for each idea under consideration.
b) Some ideas have an inherent greater chance of success than others, depending on their origin. Franklin (2003) argues that ideas that have resulted from solution spotting – when individuals have sought solutions for particular problems – have a significantly greater chance of success than most other ideas. The nearest competitors are ideas that originate from random events.
This topic is covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com.
You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at http://www.managing-creativity.com.
Kal Bishop, MBA
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Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com.