What is Conflict?

Conflict is the consequence of people having varying needs, opinions, and expectations. Conflict management is key in any human relationship, and if managed properly, it provides for significant growth.

The most important conflicts – the ones that, when managed well, lead to positive results in teams – are the ones in which people feel personally invested in their positions or are bringing something of themselves as human beings into the interaction.

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Conflict Management

Conflict Management is the art of being able to recognize and handle conflicts sensibly, fairly, and tactfully. It implies finding solutions to problems skilfully by engaging in fruitful communication or making negotiations through various conflict management strategies.

Methods of Resolving Conflicts

The following methods must be adopted to resolve conflicts:

Active Listening

People who do not agree with you won’t change their minds unless they feel they’ve been heard. Listening makes you learn things too, which you can’t do unless you refrain from being judgemental (the automatic response for most of us).

There are skills to learn:

1. Understanding your position and, if you can, that of the person you conflict with:

Think about what you want to achieve. Think about the obstacles and opportunities. In the jargon, look for the interests behind the positions.

2. Figure out the right approach to the situation:

There are many theoretical models of conflict. The most popular one is the one that has five parts:

1. Avoiding
2. Competing
3. Compromising
4. Accommodating
5. Collaborating.

Your first step is to learn what the other person is trying to do and to decide which approach makes the most sense strategically for you to best achieve your interests if you can manage the situation to make that approach work. 

Strategic Positioning

Read the situation to see if there are things you can do to make one approach more likely to work than the other. If you can make it likely that the other person will compromise, for instance, that is a good result if it’s the approach that works for you.

If you can make it likely that the other person will compromise without feeling the pain of not getting everything on his list of wants, then you’ve established or maintained a relationship, too, which will help you with the next negotiation. If you control the process, you control a lot of the outcome.

Always think about the next steps: 

During the conflict, anticipate what the other person will do. If there will be the next negotiation, don’t burn your bridges. It takes practice and a little natural paranoia. The thing that separates conflict resolution from conflict management is that the latter is concerned with what happens after the discussion ends.

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Conflict Management Conclusion

To resolve a conflict permanently, the cause of the conflict must be addressed and not just the symptoms of it. The focus should be on building an atmosphere designed to reduce destructive conflict and deal with routine frictions and minor differences before they become unmanageable.

The key to resolving conflict with a positive outcome includes looking for a win-win situation, cutting losses when necessary, formulating proactive conflict management strategies, using effective negotiation and communication, and appreciating cultural differences among project stakeholders.

Conflict management is relevant not only in the realm of inter or intrastate conflicts but the approach is also useful in managing local and other types of conflicts, particularly those of domestic nature both in the developed and developing countries.

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