How To Handle Conflict In Your Organisation

In the last CEO Blog post, we discussed ways to deal with conflicts in our personal business relationships. But what about conflicts found in the wider organisation? Clearly, a workplace culture that tolerates high levels of conflict is headed for trouble, with just some of the effects including high turnover, low morale, increased sick leave and of course the costs associated with dispute resolution. What can we do to handle conflict in our organisations effectively?

One person says or does something that another person doesn't like, words are exchanged like sword thrusts, and before you know it, everyone ends up with pie in their face ... much like this 3 Stooges video ...

Clearly, this is not the kind of culture that we want to encourage in our organisations!

Dealing with workplace conflicts

The causes of workplace conflicts can be multitudinous, so where do we start? Though there will undoubtedly be some situations unique to each workplace, there are a few areas that business leaders can focus on that will help to create a culture that effectively deals with conflict.

Reduce silos

"Most people complain about "silos" in their organisation", says human behaviour expert Andrew O'Keeffe in Weeding Out The Turf Wars. "Unless you work in a small organisation, you are likely to be frustrated by internal rivalries and turf protection."

Some of the ways to reduce silos that Andrew explores include:

• Build social collegiality amongst the top team
  
  To reduce silos, the CEO needs to build a team spirit where executives have a strong identity with the executive team. If the top leader does not build the emotional collegiality amongst the top team, then they drive the social belonging of the individuals to the level below them.  
  
• Value every group equally
  
  CEOs often value one group in their organisation more than others. This drives feelings of elitism of the one favoured department, and resentment as second-class citizens amongst the rest, with consequential "them and us" competition and jealousy.
  
• Attend to destructive behaviour
  
  Top leaders should not accept destructive, competitive, intra-group behaviour. The CEO should specifically make clear that competitive group behaviour will not be tolerated, and if it appears, address it immediately.

Address negativity and gossip

In 5 Ways To Address Negativity In The Workplace, Ken Warren states: "We all like to have a whinge from time to time - about our co-workers, unpopular changes, and how nobody ever cleans up the tea room. A certain amount of complaining is normal. But there are some who become stuck in their unhappiness, to the point where they are having a negative influence on others."

When addressing negativity, Ken recommends that you:

• Speak directly to the negative person
  
  You may want to first try allowing the other person to save face by defining the problem in an acceptable way. For example, that perhaps there has been a communication breakdown of some sort.
  
  Offer what you are willing to do to help, and be open to any explanations they may give - that they were not intentionally trying to undermine your position, for example. You may need to have a back-up plan of how to respond to anger, but I often find if you have the right tone - one where you are aiming for a good outcome for both you and them - that most people respond well.
  
• Or try an indirect approach 
  
  One that influences the people around them. Speaking to your team as a group about actions you can all take to contribute to morale is one example of this. You could also use third parties who may be in a better position to influence change. The Negative Nellie may be more open to feedback from someone else they are closer to or perhaps even someone outside of your workplace.  

"Most people spend a large chunk of their day frustrated by their coworkers' behaviour - whining, complaining, griping and gossiping", says Dr Alan Zimmerman in How To Deal With The Whiners In Your Workplace. A situation ripe for conflict ...

He suggests some of the following steps to help leaders stem the tide of these negative behaviours:

• Bring a specific complaint to the surface
  
  More often than not, complainers complain about a variety of issues a lot of the time. They act like a hose, spraying their garbage over anything or anyone in sight. Get specific. Tell the complainer that you've noticed their apparent job dissatisfaction, and you would like to start the process of understanding their feelings. Stick with one issue at a time, one week at a time. And once you've brought a complaint to the surface...
  
• Honour the other person's perspective
  
  Show some respect for the other person's point of view ... even if it is way off-base ... because to them, it is the truth. Show the other person your genuine concern for their feelings and your honest respect for their perspective. When you honour the other person's perspective, you reduce the intensity of their complaint.
  
• Avoid defensiveness
  
  Most people want to defend themselves when someone complains. They want to justify their actions, stand up for the company, or point the finger of blame somewhere else.
  
  You've got to resist this at all costs. Don't make excuses or argue. At this point, it's your job to demonstrate the fact you're there for them with a statement such as "Tell me more".

Build resilience

"In a business environment that is only going to get tougher, people are now under greater pressure to do more and be more than ever before. Since this sort of pressure isn't likely to change soon, people need to be armed with the right skills and abilities to handle it if they are going to stay productive and effective", says Michael Licenblat in Build Teams That Thrive By Increasing Workforce Resilience.

Here's some of his suggestions for increasing resilience in your teams:

• Emotional hardiness
  
  High adrenaline levels from stressful or emotional situations can impair logic and lead to poor decision-making. Leaders can help their staff to become emotionally hardy by encouraging them to set boundaries on their workloads, time frame expectations and availability to everyone else. Also, by taking the time to listen (and act on) feedback from people, staff gain a sense of trust and faith that their best interests are being acknowledged and, therefore, are more willing to apply themselves to their tasks.
  
• Communication clarity
  
  Leaders need to become the example of the behaviour they wish others to do. Demonstrate your own communication clarity by reacting calmly and clearly in your communications. Before responding to any situation, incident or conflict, take an extra 3 seconds to calm yourself down and gather your thoughts, so that you can focus on the issue (and not the emotion).

Ensure communication channels are open - and two way

"Your entire interpersonal life is dependent on your ability to communicate. To have effective, working relationships you have to be skilled at making your thoughts, feelings, and needs known to others - and you have to be receptive to the thoughts, feelings, and needs of others", says Dr Zimmerman in Communication Blocks - And Techniques To Overcome Them.

Here's some communication blocks and unblocking techniques to promote in your workplace:

• Past experiences
  
  Sometimes your past experiences can set you up to tune-out and turn-off the communication process. If, for example, your weekly staff meetings have almost always been a waste of time, you may enter a meeting expecting to learn nothing.
  
  Unblocking technique - To avoid making such mistakes, you can certainly use your past experience as a guide. Just don't overdo it. Your past experience gives you a vote - but not a veto - in making sense out of things.
  
• Ambiguity
  
  There's an old saying amongst communication professors that says, "Words don't have meanings. People do". In other words, the same word can mean lots of different things to lots of different people. And that always causes communication problems.
  
  Unblocking technique - To reduce this factor disrupting your communication, remember that every ambiguous word needs to be clarified before making a response to it.
  
• Hidden agendas
  
  These happen all too often in business meetings. A person comes to the meeting with one thought on their mind - what THEY want - and the quality of their listening and the sincerity of their comments are all geared to getting what THEY want.
  
  Unblocking technique - Ask yourself if you're being sincere and honest when you're in the midst of a conversation. Or are your comments motivated by a hidden desire to turn the conversation and the results in your favour? If you're guilty of that, chances are you're going to miss or dismiss some excellent ideas from people who have some new, fresh, and possibly better ways of doing things. Hidden agendas almost always damage the communication process.
  
• Defensiveness
  
  Whenever you or the other person in a conversation is defensive, you can expect the communication to break down. One or both of you won't "hear" everything that is said, or you may inject things that were never said. And this is most likely to happen when one or both of you are feeling insecure.
  
  Unblocking technique - To remove this noise from your communication, remember to check yourself. When you feel yourself getting defensive - STOP. Don't jump to conclusions. Don't respond too quickly. Check to see if you really understand what the other person is saying.

Address generational issues

We've heard about the 'workplace generation gap' and how the diverse needs and attitudes of staff of differing ages can cause workplace conflict. It's important then, to become informed about what the different generations expect and learn new ways to manage all generations. (Read a related blog post on Baby Boomers in the workplace - "Baby Boomers - Will They Ever Leave?")

"Maybe you've already experienced some issues around attracting and retaining the best people from across the 4 generations. Now what? How do you move forward from here? How do you become more generation friendly?", asks Karen Schmidt in Creating A Generation Friendly Organisation.

According to Karen, "Once you make the decision to become generation friendly there are some steps to help you achieve it with a minimum of fuss". These include:

• Brainstorm
  
  Get people of different generations to give you some ideas on how you can cater to their specific needs. You might be surprised to discover some of the new and innovative suggestions that can come out of this type of exercise. Remember the basic rules of brainstorming and don't discount any idea until you've had the opportunity to explore the possibilities.
  
• Create
  
  Put together a detailed plan to implement your ideas. Be prepared to trial a few alternatives as part of the plan and do some research before "going live". Why not select a pilot group to comment on, or even try out some of the plan, in advance of the full implementation.
  
• Educate
  
  The success of any change program lies in educating people about the changes. Be prepared to provide further information for people to help them overcome the issues that will inevitably flow from any change program.

I'll leave you with the last word from William Ury in this TED video, author of "Getting to Yes" who offers an elegant, simple (but not easy) way to create agreement in even the most difficult situations.

Have a fabulous month!

Cheers

Kristine Szitovszky
CEO Online