Generating Value through Conflict Resolution

Conflict is natural and inevitable. Organizations are comprised of individuals from diverse backgrounds, with varying experiences, skills, goals, and opinions. Conflict results from differences in motivations and opinions, expressed by emotional responses, such as frustration, fear, anger, and excitement. Any healthy, successful, and sustainable culture has conflict; it is normal behavior. Wellness author and speaker Greg Anderson is quoted as saying, "The Law of Win/Win says, 'Let's not do it your way or my way; let's do it the best way'."

Benefits of healthy conflict resolution include:

• Provide a collaborative team environment
• Provide an environment where silos and barriers do not exist
• Increase focus and attention on a sustainable, healthy culture
• Establish a culture where the expectation is to respectfully, constructively resolve issues
• Provide an inclusive environment in which individuals with diverse experience, skills, and backgrounds work together on common goals

It is helpful to recognize symptoms of conflict, and more importantly, to determine and eliminate – or prevent – actual causes of conflict.

Symptoms of conflict include:

• Impatience with other team members
• Mistrust and lack of understanding
• Arguing; defending positions and ideas
• Ideas and suggestions are unconnected; not building on others’ ideas and suggestions
• Distortion of facts and information to support personal agendas

Causes of conflict include:

• Threats to status and organizational structure
• Pressures from roles, responsibilities
• Differences in perceptions, values
• Differences in standards
• Clashes in motivations, behaviors
• Inconsistencies in priorities, goals
• Changes in processes, procedures 

Considerations for preventing conflict:

• Appreciate limitations of arguing and debating
• Believe that ideas and solutions can be mutually acceptable
• Understand that conflict is a natural, healthy element of decision making
• Acknowledge that differences in ideas are useful and lead to creative solutions
• Openness to others’ ideas and suggestions, with a willingness to examine possibilities
• Recognizing that some of the best ideas and solutions are generated through conflict resolution 

Conflict Resolution Process:

1. Bring together conflicting parties; select a comfortable and neutral environment
2. Identify conflict source and root cause
3. Define potential solutions to cause of conflict
4. Develop mutual agreement on an acceptable solution to the conflict
5. Define a plan to implement mutually agreed-upon solution
6. Execute, evaluate, and adjust the solution plan, as necessary

Considerations for resolving conflict:

• Encourage participants to propose and select the best solution
• Determine how important the issue is to all participants
• Listen carefully to each person’s point of view; separate areas of agreement from disagreement
• Ask participants how the process may be improved; evaluate costs versus gains
• Ensure all parties understand their responsibilities, including dealing with the problem and the solution

Tools and techniques useful for conflict resolution include:

• Cause-and-effect matrix
• Decision tree
• Fault tree analysis
• Force field analysis
• Impact/effort matrix
• Pairwise comparison
• Six thinking hats
• Solution-selection matrix 

Value Generation Partners wishes you much success in resolving conflict in a healthy, constructive manner, thereby generating greater value in your organization!   

Conflict Resolution is useful in combination with other LinkedIn Pulse posts found at this link.

Find more on related topics in Cultural Engagement for Success Handbook, which is available on Lulu.com and other book distributors in paperback and eBook. With the purchase of any handbook, the reader has access to a companion toolbox file containing all referenced templates