Tips For Resolving Project Team Conflicts
Differences and conflicts are pretty much inevitable when you’re a part of a team. The pressure to deliver quality results on a short timeline grows pressure on even the best of us. The result? Clashing personalities, opposing viewpoints, unnecessary arguments, and a not-so-comfortable and unproductive work environment.
The thing is — every individual in a team is different, they have their way of thinking, speaking, and doing stuff. Plus, being in the business world takes out a lot of strong emotions. So, a difference of opinion and project team conflicts are quite obvious.
Now, what’s most important is how soon these conflicts are identified and how fast are you able to resolve them. If you’re like me — I mean, if you’re a manager or a leader, resolving conflicts is a part of your job. And hopefully, you’ve got a good amount of experience in that field too. However, if things aren’t working in your favor, I’ve got a few conflicts resolving ideas that might interest you.
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Through this post, I am going to share some of my tried and tested methods for resolving conflicts and creating harmony in the team during the project management process. But before we get to that, let’s take a look at the different stages in which conflict occurs or grows in your team.
What Are The 5 Stages Of Conflict?
Here are the 5 stages of a project team conflict:
Stage 1: Latent Stage
In the Latent Stage, people are usually unaware of an arising conflict. They may be in conflict, but without being aware that they are in conflict. For example, a server at a restaurant inputted an order incorrectly, so, the wrong food is being prepared for the table. In this case, the manager, the server, the chef, and the customers are not aware of the arising conflict, yet.
Stage 2: Perceived Stage
The next stage is the perceived stage. This is where people become aware that there is a conflict. For example, the customers at the table have now received their orders and made complained to the management. There’s a conflict and the management is going to talk about it to the concerned people.
Stage 3: Felt Stage
This is the stage where stress and anxiety are felt by one or more of the people involved in a conflict. For example, the manager of the restaurant confronts the server and the server does not enjoy being under investigation.
Stage 4: Manifest Stage
The manifest stage is where the conflict manifests and is now visible to everyone. The stage involves communicating the conflict via e-mails, phone calls, phone messages, face-to-face meetings, or any other channel. For example, when the management and the employees have a discussion about taking the wrong order, conflict manifests.
Stage 5: And The Aftermath Stage
The final stage of conflict is the aftermath stage. In this stage, the outcome of the conflict is revealed and the necessary steps are taken to avoid any further conflict. Here’s the example: the manager of the restaurant offers the customer a complimentary dish and takes appropriate measures to ensure that the server is more careful in the future.
Why Conflict Resolution Important In The Workplace?
Leaving conflict unresolved is a serious threat to your workplace morale, your team’s productivity, and your entire company culture. You won’t be able to find a single individual who agrees to work in a tense, passive-aggressive, and conflict-prone work environment. And that automatically leads to higher staff turnover, poor job performance, and business failure.
What Are The 5 Conflict Resolution Strategies?
Here are the 5 most common conflict resolution strategies:
Strategy #1: Withdrawing/Avoiding
I know, the term “Avoid” or “Withdraw” sounds contradictory to resolving issues. But that not what this strategy is about. It is about knowing when the discomfort of confrontation or resolution exceeds the potential reward. This strategy is apt to deal with people who aren’t really contributing anything of value and withholding the rest of the team by creating unnecessary project team conflicts. So in their case, the best way to resolve a conflict is to avoid it.
Strategy #2: Competing
This is the kind of strategy you would want to use on people who create or get involved in a conflict to win. They’re usually assertive, not cooperative, and they don’t allow room for diverse perspectives. What you do, as a manager, is to sit down with both the participants of the conflict and listen to both sides of the story to make an informed decision. This method is great for resolving conflicts between two parties, but it rarely works for group problem-solving.
Strategy #3: Accommodating
Accommodating is a strategy that you use to resolve conflicts between people who are being cooperative but not assertive. You simply listen to their wishes and demands from one another, figure out who is right or wrong, and graciously resolve their conflict. This strategy may seem like the best way to resolve conflicts in the workplace, but here’s the thing — too much accommodation can turn everything against your business and its goals. To simply put, you can’t agree to fulfill or accommodate every individual’s demands just to make sure that they end the conflict.
Strategy #4: Collaborating
Collaborating is so far the best strategy for project team conflict resolution and group problem-solving. This strategy helps to make sure that people are both assertive and cooperative throughout the conflict management process. As a part of this strategy, you allow each participant to share their problem along with a solution that everyone can support.
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Strategy #5: Compromising
The last conflict resolution strategy is compromising. This strategy works best where participants are partially assertive and cooperative. The idea is quite simple — everyone has to give up a little bit of what they want and no one gets everything. This strategy is perceived as being fair, even if some people are not happy with the final outcome.
How Do You Deal With Conflict — Before One Even Arises
Now that you know how conflict arises and what are the most common strategies that managers prefer to use resolve different types of workplace conflicts, let’s see what you can as a manager to avoid conflicts within teams or during project management.
Tip #1: Have Some Ground Rules
Before a project starts, call everyone for a meeting and address what process or behavior will be considered the cause of conflicts. Set some ground rules or codes of conduct from the very beginning of the project and let everyone know the consequences of contributing to conflict.
Tip #2: Communicate Via Active Listening
During the project management process, you must get together and talk. But there’s something even more important — active listening. Make sure that every individual in your team has the chance to say everything s/he needs to say. Tell everyone to be attentive to each other words and understand what they really meant to say — not just what they thought they were saying. To add a professional touch to your project communication, consider using project management software and team collaboration software like ProofHub. It brings all your teams together and helps to keep them on the same page throughout the project management cycle.
Tip #3: Automate Feedback Sharing Process
No one chooses to be put on public blast for the mistakes they have made. Yes, feedback sharing is critical to productivity, but it doesn’t always have to be out loud. Instead, you can take your everyday review and feedback sharing processes online with an online proofing tool and make it more constructive and easy on the eye/ear.
Tip #4: Exercise Authority, When Needed
As a manager, you have a lot of responsibility as well as authority in your hands. Now, you shouldn’t hesitate using that authority every once in a while to keep things under control. It is not always that every team member is going to be on board when an idea or solution is proposed. And sometimes, you can not afford that, therefore, it is advisable that you simply wield your authority to maintain progress and avoid future conflicts.
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To Wrap Up
Resolving conflicts is never easy. However, every conflict needs to be addressed quickly and professionally in order to ensure a happier, productive workplace. The points I highlighted in this post are fitting to give you a good idea of how project team conflict arise and what are the best ways to deal with them — without taking sides or being called the “bad boss”.
You can also work to reduce conflict in the workplace by keeping all your projects, processes, people, and communications organized within one software, aka ProofHub. Give it a free trial and you’ll eventually feel the difference in your team’s performance and your overall work environment.
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