The Origins of Conflict
Conflict in any endeavor that requires the input of two or
more people is a real possibility. As the scope of a project increases, the
likelihood of differences in opinion and approach increases as a function of
the number of tasks involved and the amount of time spent by the staff in the
resolution of the project.
Ignoring the inevitable means
that project leaders will spend valuable time and energy "putting out
fires" that may never have ignited if some "firewalls" were
built at the start of the project.
Conflicts in an implementation
should be viewed as an opportunity to take many positive steps, including the
following:
- Examining current
business practices
- Interfacing in a way
not previously afforded because of logistical difficulties or lack of
understanding
- Utilizing several
perspectives for issue resolution
- Allowing individuals a
forum to express regard for their contribution to the company
Building Conflict Firewalls
Resolution of conflicts will have a positive impact on the
ultimate success of a project if effective steps are taken to ensure the
productivity of confrontations.
The foundation for building a
strong firewall is acknowledgment by the project-managing principals that
conflicts will arise and may be utilized as a positive implementation tool.
The second basic step is an
understanding of the reasons conflicts arise in a team setting. Conflicts
occur because of:
- Political reasons
– signals a perceived loss of power or control
- Reorganizational
reasons – a planned coalescence of different units as a function of
an integrated system, which disturbs the status quo and creates anxiety
about roles within the affected staff
- Changes in mandated
policy – these cause the staff to leave the comfort zone of change
tolerance
- Fear of the unknown
– the most difficult and volatile of conflicts where reason doesn't
resolve the issue because reasoning didn't begin it
Setting the attitude for addressing conflicts will help
ensure that the benefits received are those that are being sought.
A critical step in firewall
building is a formal declaration to the team members of the probability of
conflict, management's attitude toward it, and the mechanisms being
established to cope effectively with the issues as they arise. This step
amounts to "flushing out" a potential difficulty before it arises,
and eliminates the possibility of hidden agendas or token acceptance of the
team activities or decisions.
The last and single most
important step in building the conflict firewall is supplying the
"why" in the desire for effective, timely, and complete issue resolution.
This personal "why" may
be supplied to the team members through:
- A discussion of the
quality-oriented benefits of conflict resolution.
- An acknowledgment of
the contributions the team as a whole can make and that each member can
make individually through issue resolution.
- An assurance that an
organized procedure is designed and will be implemented in order to
allow all team members to achieve their personal and cumulative goals.
Format for Positive Resolution
To validate the importance of the resolution tasks, the
plan should be presented at the beginning of the project as a formal, written
structure. By providing written guidelines, the fear of different standards
for different people is eliminated, putting all team members on comfortable
communication ground with each other.
The issue coordinator will want
to create a summary log that becomes the "tote sheet" for all
issues addressed during the implementation. When the coordinator has received
an issue from a team member, the determination must be made relative to the
"ownership" of the particular concern. For example, if the concern
is of a policy nature, the resolution would be referred to decision-making
individuals within or outside of the team; if the concern is procedural or system-based,
then resolution is "owned" by the project team members themselves.
The issue coordinator assigns
team members to the task of examining, discussing, and offering viable,
mutually agreed upon suggestions for ultimate resolution. The members
selected for the resolution discussion should be those persons who represent
departments or functions directly affected by the concern presented.
An example of a system-use issue
is the responsibility for the creation of product masters. The concern may
be, "Who inputs the data for the creation of these masters – accounting,
purchasing, or engineering?" In this particular concern, representation
from each of the departments would be those empowered to examine, discuss,
and make a preliminary determination of the appropriate resolution.
During the implementation period,
conflict may also surface that involves business practices currently employed
in the company, either between or within departments. An example of this type
of conflict may involve a production manager who is concerned about the
amount of time it takes purchasing to cut a purchase order after the request
has been made. The concern here is the delivery of the required product in
time to meet company production time requirements.
In this case, the issue coordinator
would assign the two persons most closely affected by the issue to effect the
resolution. If a case arises where a concern must be addressed and the
appropriate department is not represented as a member of the team, the issue
coordinator should then approach the appropriate department supervisor to
seek additional assistance in the complete resolution of the issue.
After an assignment has been made
for the discussion of each issue, a specific time limit must be set for the
discussion and subsequent preliminary resolution suggestions. This time frame
must be realistic in relation to the other workload of the team members, but
should not be allowed to extend beyond one week in order to establish a sense
of urgency and progress in the termination of all issues.
After the team members assigned
to each issue hold the discussion, the preliminary agreement should then be
brought back to the team for discussion, review, and acceptance. The exact
timing of these team reviews is less important than the consistency with
which they are held.
Several benefits can be derived
from bringing the preliminary issue resolutions back to the team for
subsequent review and confirmation, including:
- The possibility of
resolving unforeseen conflicts, such as problems in a department not
previously anticipated to be affected
- The validation to the
involved members of the worth of their effort
- The provision of
continuing examples of the value of the exercise to the rest of the team
Ground Rules
Some particular considerations in conflict examination and
resolution should be presented and explained to all team members when the
resolution strategy is initially outlined. By providing a set of ground rules
to be followed in their meetings, the participating team members will be more
apt to stay on task, and the time spent will allow resolution to be reached
more quickly and completely.
The rules for effective
resolution
- Discuss for
resolution, never for the exercise of just having the meeting. This is
an insidious, covert practice that sometimes develops when team members
seek attention or attempt to regain control that they may feel is being
lost because of the system changes. The issue coordinator will want to
verify the existence and validity of the concern being presented by using
thorough questioning techniques before making the assignment. By making
this the first rule for resolution, the invalid issues are less likely
to surface.
- Discuss one specific
topic at a time, without straying into other areas. If a discussion
brings to light another concern that may be connected to the original
issue, it should be brought to the coordinator's attention, logged, and
assigned as a separate topic. Limiting the scope of each discussion
prevents wasted time and interference with the specific goal of the
initial meeting.
- Employ the technique
of aggressive silence. That means that each person must concentrate on
listening to the viewpoint and input of the other person(s) involved. No
"overtalking" is allowed, so each participant has an opportunity
to state a viewpoint freely. A good rule of thumb is that the number of
questions asked by each person should be equal to the number of
statements each is making.
- Employ only
positive-response body language. More potentially high-quality
communication is stopped by what is seen than by what is heard.
Employing positive-response body language means using an open, receptive
posture and presenting to the other person(s) a face that is free from
judgmental expressions.
Questions to be addressed
It is also helpful to review the
following considerations to keep a conflict discussion focused on the goal of
resolution that is congruent with the company's operational and managerial
framework. The questions to be addressed in effective conflict discussion are:
- What is the relative
importance of the issue to each dissenting party? This may bring a
discussion to a successful conclusion in the first few minutes, because
the issue being raised often is an easy accommodation by the other
party.
- Where did the conflict
or the issue-causing practice originate (e.g., what person or department
has ownership of this particular topic)?
- How many people would
be affected by a change in each relative department? People are more
difficult to change than are "things," so primary
consideration needs to be given to the numbers of people involved, which
is a determination of the degree of difficulty in effecting the change.
- What would be affected
by a change in each relative department? After the number of people
involved has been resolved, the degree of difficulty can be measured by
the reports, forms, or techniques that would be affected by an
alteration in the practice currently being examined.
- What is the view from
the top? This should be a "best guess" relative to the concern,
if any, that may be presented by management relative to the issue at
hand and the potential change mechanisms that are being discussed.
If, at this point, it is determined that the
considerations surrounding the issue make it an "even-up" concern –
approximately the same number of people and things will be affected – then
the following question should be asked:
- What is more important
– to satisfy my viewpoint and concern or to maintain cooperation with
other individual(s) or department(s)?
The exercise of examination and discussion, when focused
completely on resolution, may contribute to the company not only by
facilitating system integration, but also by improving the efficiency of
business practices, raising the levels of communication, and increasing the
level of company loyalty and employee commitment.
This
article was originally published in Industrial Management, Vol. 40,
No. 3, May-June 1998.
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