Managing Conflict

Ways and means of effectively sailing through.

Challenging, no? Yes, I agree.

Conflicts are a part of life professional and personal, inevitable. Don’t be scared of it, and don’t shy away from it. Be open to it, be alert to it, and address it as quickly as possible. That is what we will understand and read through.

Before anything – Be Solution oriented.

Let’s start from the basics:

First, what exactly is a conflict? a serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one.

How do they origin?

There can be multiple sources, reasons or believes.

Sources:

1.Knowledge: Information in the Act/ Task/Conversation was missing, incomplete or ambiguous.

Identify the problem, provide them with the resources and guide them towards finding their own solution.

2. Circumstances: A part of the external environment leads to the conflict.

In these cases, your role is to manage. Again, ask the people involved for their suggestions, but the solution might be outside their authority or responsibility.

3. Skills Set: People lack the appropriate skills for executing the work assigned.

Take on the role of trainer or coach. Provide your team members with the professional development they need to build their skills and avoid potential future conflicts.

4. Values: A clash of personal values leads to conflict.

When conflict is based on somebody’s identity, your role is that of counsellor. But keep in mind that most of these issues should be handled by your people management team.

5. Identity: The participants’ sense of identity puts them at odds with each other.

– One person feels a piece of work is beneath them and passes it on to someone they consider “inferior”.

– Two people refuse to back down from conflicting positions because they think “losing” the argument would be humiliating.

When conflict is based on somebody’s identity, your role is that of counsellor.

To simple it out, it’s primarily disagreement or different believes/thought process/ way of doing things.

Severity of a conflict depends on the situation and people. But at the end, it’s all the same? No one likes them or want to be indulged in those.

Ways to deal with a conflict;

1. Mindset encourage open discussion to productive conflict: The idea is to see conflicts as an opportunity of growth for relationships and firm rather anxiety/annoyance.

• Prioritize accountability over blame: The focus needs to move onto “How did this happen?” from “ Who did this? ” so it won’t lead to the blame game; it will yield the root cause. As people are “the most expert in their own error. Even if this doesn’t result in a unanimous opinion or a clear plan of action, it shifts the focus from the responsible parties and opens the remediation process to many diverse, productive ideas.

• Quantify the impact of the problem: Quantifying the impact of conflict provides several benefits. It encourages productive conversations, creates alignment around the gravity of the issue, and unlocks creative solutions as people identify both the source and the impact of their conflicts. Assigning a numeric value to waste helps teams find better ways to reduce it.

• Don’t take it personally: One of the most important aspect is to not take it personally, and separate the issue from the person. Keep issues pending from prior incidents separate, understand, analyze and come up with a solution.

• Empathise: Step into the shoes of other, in case of a single person/team when coming to rescue. If you able to imagine, half the job is done already.

Until, next time!

Feel free to reach out to me at: priyakconsultancy@gmail.com or on instagram by @the.good.practice