the arts of reflecting and reframing an employee’s point of view may be an initial challenge for you, but it’s worth it in the end. Chapter 7 walks you through these steps and helps you keep your footing along the path of conflict resolution.
Negotiating a resolution to conflict starts with getting all the relevant information about the past on the table and ends with a clear definition of what the future could be. Get there by listening for what’s really important to the parties involved and then asking directed, open-ended questions. In Chapter 8, I provide questions and cover the process of moving people through the negotiation stage of a mediated conversation.
The best solutions satisfy all parties involved and, perhaps more important, are lasting. Chapter 9 helps you work with your employees to develop good solutions and agreements.
If the conflict making its way through your organisation seems to affect each and every employee, suggesting, planning for and/or facilitating a team meeting may be the answer.
In Chapter 10, I discuss how to resolve conflict when larger groups are involved.
Tapping into Conflict Resolution Expertise
You don’t have to go it alone when addressing conflict. And you don’t need to jump in and attack the situation without first looking at the tools available to you. Create a customised approach by looking at what’s already in place and then how to augment that with a little help from your friends.
The human resources (HR) department is an obvious place to start when you begin your search for advice and insight about a conflict. These personnel professionals can help you investigate an employee’s work history and interpret company policy or employment law. They often lend a hand with customised trainings and can identify employee assistance programs such as counselling and addiction specialists.
Flip to Chapter 11 for more about internal resources you may be able to utilise in a conflict.
Chapter 2
Understanding What People Bring to Conflict
In This Chapter
Each person in your workplace is a complex system of past experiences, beliefs, values, opinions and emotions. Each has different ways of communicating, processing the things around him or her, and handling conflict.
This chapter helps you gain a better insight into the people on your team – why they see things the way they do, why they react to different people in different ways, and how their emotions can complicate the whole situation. You can start to understand how your colleagues’ personal beliefs and attributes contribute to the team dynamic and sometimes contribute to conflict (which is normal, natural and inevitable, by the way) so that you can build better working relationships and a more productive working environment. You’ll see the broader foundation of conflict and be more prepared to proactively reduce and perhaps prevent it.
Rediscovering Communication
Good communication is the hallmark of a productive working relationship. Easier said than done, right? Even when you believe you’re being crystal clear, it’s possible that the other person doesn’t understand what you’re really trying to say. This happens for a variety of reasons, including differences in goals, misunderstandings with language, ambiguous body language and misinterpretations of tone of voice.
Reaching agreement is commonly thought of as the goal of communication, but this misconception is often one of the most unnecessary causes of conflicts. Instead, focus on creating understanding – and understanding doesn’t mean agreeing. It isn’t necessary for the two people in conflict to see eye to eye and walk away holding hands, but it’s helpful if they can talk to each other respectfully, feel heard by each other, and gain a greater understanding of the situation and the other person.
The
