Resolving Conflict in Teams

Teams are made up of individuals; and individuals come to the team with their own unique perspectives, experiences, agendas, and values. In fact, it is the variety of these characteristics that makes a team valuable for creativity in work and project development.

Unfortunately, it is also these differences that can breed conflict in teams through miscommunication and misunderstanding. These misunderstandings and miscommunications are then exacerbated by the separate egos of the team members and each individual’s need to be “right”.

Conflicts can be resolved when there is first a willingness to participate in the process, then agreement on what the ultimate goal is. Even getting to this stage, however, requires one thing – open and clear communication. All conflict resolution begins there. The parties have to communicate their acknowledgment that there is a problem and that they are willing to work on solving it.

Once open communication is established the path is clear for the subsequent steps to resolving the issue. Next, all parties must agree to check their egos at the door. No conflict can be resolved when there are egos involved; all the ego will want to do is take offense and be defensive. Egos are easily bruised and so they must be left outside the room in order to clear space for openness, honesty and respect.

The next step is to “seek first to understand, then to be understood”. If all parties are willing to try their best to hear and understand the perspective of the other parties, then all perspectives can be broadened and much of the misunderstanding goes away.

The final step is to let go of the notion of “rightness”. Being “right” is relative and the parties must decide if their desire to be right outweighs the desire for a healthy, happy, and cohesive team environment.

So, the Four Key Elements of conflict resolution are;

• open and clear communication
• check egos at the door
• seek first to understand, and then to be understood
• ditch the need to be “right”

When all parties can at least agree that they want to resolve the issues, these principles can help bring peace, so that the work your team is there to do can go about getting done!