Fighting over wolves: These wolves express disagreements about the territory or have another type of conflict. Ideally, you can coach your colleagues to talk to each other and resolve their conflict without getting involved, and make it clear that their disagreements are detrimental to them and the organization. But this is not always possible. In these situations, we believe it is important to intervene not as a boss, but as a mediator. While you won`t be a neutral and independent mediator because you have some interest in the outcome, you`ll likely be more effective at meeting everyone`s interests – yours, yours, and those of the organization – if you use your mediation skills instead of your authority. A disagreement is a type of conflict, whether between people or ideas. Of course not! Yes! That is an argument. If your opinion contradicts the facts, there is disagreement. If you first sit down separately with them, focus the discussion not on how to resolve the conflict, but on understanding the disagreement and believing that you are willing to listen and understand their concerns. Teams can reduce the emotional intensity of conflict by establishing clear guidelines on how to express disagreements and challenge colleagues.
A useful norm is to focus on the task-related element of a conflict, rather than criticizing the characteristics of specific people. Another is to focus on common goals and shared commitments that can keep conflicts in perspective and prevent them from overwhelming the team`s efforts. Content and emotional conflicts can be divided into those that occur within an organization and those that occur between two or more different organizations. Intra-organizational conflicts occur between departments of an organization, within work teams and other groups, and between individuals. Inter-organizational conflicts are disagreements between people – e.B business partners or other employees, suppliers and distributors – in two or more organizations. If a disagreement breaks out between two people on your team, it can be tempting to step in and impose a decision on them. While this may certainly be the quickest (and perhaps least painful) way to resolve it, it won`t help your team members understand how to resolve conflicts on their own. Therefore, as a manager, it`s best to rely on your mediation skills, not your authority. The first step to playing the role of mediator is to understand their two positions – what one claims and what the other rejects, and their interests – why they make and reject the claims.
You can do this in a joint meeting with both parties or in separate meetings. decide whether to meet with the parties first or separately. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. The goal of the first meeting is that they leave with diminished emotions and feel respected by you, although not yet from each other. When this is done, you want to focus on putting their positions, interests and priorities on the table. Encourage them throughout the process to take responsibility for approaching an agreement. If all your efforts do not lead to an agreement, you may have to get rid of your role as a mediator and impose an outcome as a boss that is in the best interest of the organization. Content conflicts deal with aspects of a team`s work. Conflicts may arise, for example, over questions about an individual`s performance, different views on the scope of a task or task, different definitions of acceptable quality, or the nature of a project objective. Other content-related conflicts relate to how team members work together. These litigation conflicts often involve disagreements about the strategies, policies, and procedures that the group should use to accomplish its tasks. When ideas are contradictory, there are differences of opinion.
If you want to go to an action movie, but your friend wants to go to a romantic comedy, that`s a disagreement. Statements, opinions and claims may also vary. When I say that my grandmother was a sweet woman, and you say that she was a terrible person, it is a disagreement. If the IRS finds a disagreement between your taxes and your actual income, you could get into trouble. Team conflicts are caused by factors related to individual behavior as well as disagreements about team work. Conflicts between team members come from multiple sources. Some conflicts have their basis in how people behave, while others are due to disagreements about how the team works and how it is conducted. While these three approaches all end open conflict, team cohesion can suffer when members find the process itself unfair, disrespectful, or too controversial. This can result in resentment that festers and leads to further conflict that a more conciliatory process could have avoided.
Identify the causes of conflict within an organization as a conflict manager. You can collect this information by doing different things: “Why?” or “Why not?” Ask questions to discover the interests behind their positions, listen carefully to identify those interests, rephrase what you think you understand about a colleague`s interests to make sure you understand and the other colleague hears them too. How can you work towards an agreement? It can be easy to find potential solutions when, by helping your colleagues understand their different positions and interests, it becomes clear that this conflict was just a misunderstanding or that there is a way forward that respects the interests of both parties. If it turns out that their interests are as contradictory as their positions, it may be more difficult to find a solution, but don`t give up. Of course, there will be times when you will have to put aside your role as a mediator and decide how to resolve the conflict – for example, when important ministerial or corporate policy issues are at stake, there is imminent danger, or all other avenues have not resolved the conflict, but these opportunities are few and far between. The factual argument is interesting. The two colleagues may have been in the same place, but everyone remembers it differently. Both believe that if only you and your colleague could convince you and your colleague of their views on the facts, the conflict would be over. The problem is that even if you had been there, trying to convince others of your point of view is counterproductive, because without new credible information, they are unlikely to change their minds about what happened.
The best approach to closing this trap is to agree to disagree and move on. .