Project Conflict?

I’ve been reading Dr. Tammy Lenski’s blog “I Can’t Say That!” Her blog focuses on how to talk things out in relationships that matter. It seems that whenever two or more people have a relationship, whether it be personal or business, conflict inevitably pops up.

Project Managers face this kind of conflict on a daily basis. One way to avoid conflict during your project is to set up some ground rules for discussing project issues. The first rule should be that you focus on the present and not rehash the past. When you bring your problems into the present you have the ability to solve them. Spending time talking about what happened in the past makes us powerless because no one can change the past.

Another idea is to have team members begin by only discussing technical solutions to project problems. When this has been completed they can assign costs to the best technical solution. Once the technical solution is agreed upon, the discussion of related or potential costs is much easier – you only have to allocate who will be responsible for what. This approach will diffuse the most intense project conflicts that tend to get caught up in a jumble of costs and blame.

Finally, when you see (or feel compelled to write) threatening letters to project team members, your project is in trouble. This is a sign that communication has broken down, and that people are retiring to their respective corners. They are likely to come out punching. The entire project is moved into a defensive, blame seeking, finger-pointing mode. It is next to impossible to solve problems in this mode. You might consider bringing the team members together to discuss their frustrations and problems, and to work them out. This meeting is best lead by a third party, one who can “neutralize” any power imbalances that might occur. A skilled facilitator, acting as a neutral, can help the team to discuss and resolve issues and to truly turn the project around.

Comments

[Sue Dyer]

The strategy of course is not to AVOID conflict. A very effective technique to help your team resolve issues is by bringing them into the present (using the present tense) so that the team has the "power" to resolve the issues. None of us has the power to change the past. Talking about what happened, how it happened and the associated conflict defuses the team's power to actually resolve the issue. Bringing the issues into the present...What do we know, what are the options, how can we...This empowers the team to find resolution and actually then deal with the underlying hurt feelings, or frustration that was underlying the conflict.

I agree with you completely that conflicts are NEVER about what people say they are. Conflict is always personal and at a feeling level, or there wouldn't be conflict. There is a lot of energy in conflict. If you can use that energy toward constuctive solutions, excellent solutions are often found.

Team members are never of course not limited to discussing technical solutions. However there is a window of opportunity when a technical solution is possible. After that window closes, the project will be directed to move forward with a mandate. This is not the best solution for the project or team. The team failed to find a solution in the time available.

[PM Hut]

I like this article.

I agree with you about not avoiding conflicts, leaving things festering is not the right thing to do, and it will certainly create "bad blood" between team members.

On the other side, not all conflicts can be bad, check this article on constructive vs destructive conflict in project management: http://www.pmhut.com/constructive-vs-destructive-conflict-in-project-management ...