When talking with people about conflict in the workplace, there is always a look of discomfort on their faces. I haven’t met anyone yet who is excited by the thought of an office argument or meeting disagreement. However, the reality is that conflict is everywhere around us in the workplace. We can’t just hide from it.
The question is: How do we best deal with conflict and focus on resolving it?
First, we need to remember that conflict is almost always associated with an emotional element, and it is the emotions that create angst or anxiety. When we shift the focus to the business element of conflict, it can not only reduce the temperature in the meeting or discussion — but also speed up the process to focusing on an outcome.
Here are four recommended steps to apply when your next conflict arises at work:
1. Focus on identifying “What is the business challenge we are trying to solve.”
Sometimes this is not obvious, and it takes time to think through what the true business challenge really is when emotions are running high. That is especially the case if all the initial energy is instead focused on the conflict that can sometimes arise.
For example, emotions could spill between sales and operations when there is a proposed new internal process for handling customized customer requests, at the same time when there is a slowdown in sales (pressure to increase sales), and reduction of internal operations resources (due to the slowdown in sales). At first glance, this might seem like an impasse.
2. Get agreement on the business challenge with all parties involved in the conflict.
This is a big step, especially in the middle of the conflict. It is easy for people to take sides and have a mindset that there is going to be a “winner” and “loser” for the conflict (and of course everyone wants to be on the winning team). Instead, the mindset should be on the ways the entire group can engage as a team, emotions aside, to solve the business challenge.
In the example above with proposed internal customized requests changes, there should be an agreement on what is behind the proposed changes and how that could potentially impact all teams (both sales and operations). If the business can help show that these new customized request additions will drive more sales, that should be motivating news for both sales and operations, and help with future expansion (less contraction) for both teams.
NOTE: You may not be able to resolve this in the first meeting as detailed facts behind the proposed changes may need to be gathered, and other stakeholders may need to be part of the conversation.
3. Decide on a compromise.
Once the business challenge is agreed upon by those in the conflict, part of the resolution is to address what the parties are going to give up (time, dollars, resources, revised launch date) to get to an answer for the business challenge. This can be particularly enlightening when one group realizes that another group will be hindered to solve something within a given amount of time or resources.
As an example in the above scenario, the perception might initially have been that it would only take the operations group an hour to address a customized client request – when in fact they might need 15-20 hours of staff time to work on a customized solution. This fact could enlighten everyone to think about resources that would be needed to handle these requests, and how to initiate a staffing/contract expansion plan based on uptick in customized requests.
4. Getting a written action plan that includes all parties for the solution.
It is true that one person or team may have more work or burden to solve a particular issue, but by creating a written action plan that includes actions for all groups, it will help ensure that arriving at the solution for the business challenge is a team effort.
Will these four steps solve all conflict and make everyone happy at work 24/7? Not always. But focusing the energy on the business issue and stepping away from the emotions of a conflict helps to make the team realize that an “us” vs. “them” is not productive — and that the new focus can build allies for future projects.
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If you need additional tips for ways to resolve conflict, don’t hesitate to reach out to us for help. Sometimes a neutral third-party partner is your best way to boost confidence for mediating a challenging situation or to provide some overall leadership guidance!