Conflict Resolution Strategies in Team Development

1. Project Team Development Constructive Conflict Resolution Based on material made available by John Bennedict, Bell South

2. Characteristics of a High-Performing Team • Commitment to a common goal • Clear roles and work assignments • Informality • Participation • Civilized Disagreement • Consensus Decisions • Mutual Accountability

3. Characteristics (continued) • Honest communications • Active listening • Shared leadership • Good external relations • Diversity - style and technical capability • Self assessment • Appreciation of individual and team efforts

4. Barriers to Team Performance • Team leadership limitations • Goal ambiguity • Lack of team rewards and recognition • Poor interpersonal dynamics • Lack of good communication

5. Sources of Conflict • Conflicts arise from differences in goals, facts, values, and methods • Major sources of conflict in teams include • Schedules • Priorities • Resources • Personalities

6. Five Modes of Handling Conflict • Competing (Forcing) • Avoiding (Withdrawing) • Accommodating (Smoothing) • Collaborating (Confronting) • Compromising

7. Competing (Forcing) • Assertive and uncooperative - pursuing your own concerns at another’s expense • Power oriented • Useful when • unpopular actions needed on important issues • pressing on issues when you know you are right • decisive action required (emergencies) • needing to protect yourself and others

8. Competing (Forcing) continued • Can be harmful if you • Alienate the other party • Stalemate the conflict and not come to any agreement by insisting on your own particular outcome • Feel remorse later and regret having pushed to much for your own point of view • Cause the other party to fell remorseful about the concessions that they felt pressured to give

9. Competing (Forcing) continued • Can be harmful if you (continued) • Miss hearing other issues or points of view at the moment that might have proven useful • Lose sight of your overall goals by locking into one point of view • Lose emotional control and run the risk of permanently damaging the relationship • Risk alienating your own team members who do no share your point of view

10. Avoiding (Withdrawing) • Unassertive and uncooperative - neither pursuing you own nor another’s concerns • Uses behaviors such as sidestepping, postponing, or withdrawing • Is useful when • Issue is trivial or symptomatic of another larger issue or there is no chance of winning • Others can resolve issue more effectively, more data are needed, or people need to calm down

11. Avoiding (Withdrawing) continued • Can hinder the conflict resolution process if you • Persist in avoiding an important issue for the long term • Miss a time window in resolving the issue • Shut down or lose your connections with others • Are seen as being unwilling to cooperate • Risk alienation

12. Accommodating (Smoothing) • Unassertive and cooperative - pursuing another’s concerns and sacrificing your own • Is useful • When you are wrong or when the issue is more important to others than to yourself • When used to demonstrate open-mindedness, preserve harmony, or accumulate social credits • When competing would damage your own cause

13. Accommodating (Smoothing) continued • Can be harmful if you • Fail to achieve your goals • Lose respect in the other party’s eyes • Are viewed as weak or wishy-washy • Are seen as ineffectual by people within your own organization or team • Bankrupt your organization • Anger or alienate those you represent

14. Collaborating (Confronting) • Assertive and cooperative - pursuing your own and another’s concerns • Is likely to lead to the most lasting solutions • Is useful in • Determining an integrative solution when both parties’ concerns are equally important • Gaining commitment from others • Resolving interpersonal hostilities • Merging insights from people with different perspectives

15. Collaborating (Confronting) continued • Can be harmful if you • Sell out some “have to have’s” for the sake of a win-win solution • Fail to be an advocate when it is necessary • Become too close with the other party and lose your objectivity • Downgrade your goals to reach agreement • Become remorseful that you did not push hard enough for your own particular outcomes

16. Compromising • Partially assertive and cooperative - pursuing a solution that satisfies some concerns of both people • Is useful • When used to achieve temporary solutions or arrive at agreement quickly • When both parties are strongly committed to mutually exclusive positions • When goals are moderately important

17. Compromising (continued) • Can be harmful if you • Are seen as an “easy touch” • Are seen as too gullible • Give up something that you will later regret • Lead the conflict to a mediocre outcome • Trade off a more valuable concession for a less valuable one • End up not getting what you really want

18. Key Messages • Successful teams should be committed to a common purpose and performance goals, committed to a common approach, and have mutual accountability • Conflicts will occur in projects and arise from differences in goals, opinions, facts, values, and methods

19. Key Messages (continued) • It is recognized that conflict is healthy and should be managed to the mutual benefit of all concerned. The management of conflict determines it goodness or badness • When the inevitable conflict occurs, failure to manage it properly can result in many types of negative consequences

20. Key Messages (continued) • There are five modes of handling conflict: • competing or forcing • avoiding or withdrawing • accommodating or smoothing • collaborating or confronting • compromising • Each mode is useful and is harmful in certain ways