Who Says Project Managers Don't Fight!
Because it involves people, conflict in project management is inevitable.
No
matter how good your project schedule, how sound your budget, projects
can still be undone through poor interaction between individuals.
Projects
involve people of different backgrounds, delegations, skill levels,
qualifications, experience - and not to mention egos - working together.
Conflict can arise out of differences in values, attitudes, needs, expectations, perceptions, resources, or just personalities.
Therapist
David Kantor once said: "In calm situations, with low emotional stakes,
it's easy to deal with people. They will listen to rational
explanations, and offer rational responses of their own. But in
high-stakes situations...confrontation - overt or subtle - puts everyone
on the line".
Proper conflict resolution skills can assist
project managers to effectively dissolve conflicts that threaten
organisational productivity and harness the energy for the purposes of
good.
Avoiding conflict from the start
In contemporary
project management, conflict resolution is part of a project manager's
core responsibilities. But conflict resolution is more than just
refereeing disputes. Often conflict in a project stems largely from
flaws in the project plan, processes or organisation, or even people's
understanding.
The Project Manager can avoid conflicts in projects from the start through the following techniques:
- Always inform the team of the project's direction
- Explain project objectives and the rationale
- Clearly define project constraints in the project plan
- Communicate decisions and changes plainly and in a timely fashion
- Clearly state expectations of individuals and the team
- Assign work without ambiguity and overlapping responsibilities
- Make work assignment interesting and challenging
If
the objective is to construct a team that works, with the right skilled
people to do the job, there must not be any ambiguity about the
objective and job goals. Each team member must fully understand what is
required.
A PM should be a good communicator
The key to
achieving these aims is good communication. It is said that 50 to 80
percent of a project manager's time is spent communicating. This could
be meetings, phone calls, e-mails, reporting, negotiating with people,
and writing documents.
Even if the project is well planned and
expectations crystal clear, it is highly likely that in any of these
situations personality conflict will arise. As a leader the project
manager will likely need to get involved and negotiate peace between
team members in conflict.
Types of personality conflict
There
are many types of personality conflict. Most often they are about small
elements of personality that irritate others and don't have much to do
with people's abilities - such as a particular brand of humour, a work
philosophy or a need to ask a lot of questions.
Normally, we can
tune out these things and just get on with the job. But there are
occasions when the irritation between two people becomes friction, and
the friction becomes conflict - with negative consequence.
Consequences
of conflict can include: lack of co-operation, intimidation, waste of
energy, lost opportunity for synergy, reduced productivity or low
morale.
Sometimes personality conflict can become openly
acrimonious. Sarcasm and cutting remarks that accompany personal discord
can bother other team members and this irritation can be cumulative. If
the conflict is affecting team morale, the PM should step in
immediately.
Approaches to Resolving Conflict
Conflict often
starts from people wanting to win a point or control of a matter at
another person's expense. This can seriously damage relationships and
the project's ability to function in the future or in different
contexts. Likewise, losing can leave the person feeling powerless or
angry which can also damage the future of that relationship, or their
self esteem.
The trick is to resolve the conflict in a way that
benefits the organisation and if possible the parties in the conflict. A
good PM will discuss the impact of the situation with the team members
and outline the most appropriate approach for the desired outcome. Often
the use of a mediator is warranted to dampen emotional responses and
keep the focus on outcomes.
There are a number of different 'tried and tested' methods of resolving conflict that will apply in different given situations.
Withdrawal
is physical and emotional retreat from the conflict. Individuals should
withdraw when: an issue is trivial or another outcome is more
important; when 'winning the point' is more trouble than its worth; or
when someone else can better handle the issue. Withdrawing has its
problems. A person who withdraws from a conflict no longer has a say in
what happens which - in the long term - can breed resentment.
Suppression
can be described as the 'peace at any cost' approach. It involves
emphasising the points of agreement and deemphasising the points of
difference. It is best used when co-operation is desired on an important
issue or the aim is to be seen as flexible or reasonable. Suppression
can be positive if it gives the parties time to think about how to
respond to the matter.
However, suppressing a conflict means
communication is cut off and important issues aren't discussed. Issues
that will still need to be resolved in the end.
Forcing is
directing the resolution in one way or another. Again it should be a
short term solution when time is of the essence. It is best used when
the issue relates to rules and discipline. PMs should only force an
issue when they know they are right and can back up their decision.
Compromise
can be seen as a reasonable approach when moving forward is the most
important outcome and you have tight time constraints. Compromise
involves each party giving in a little and gaining some ground in the
process. It may mean that neither party is really satisfied with the
outcome - each feeling they've lost something but the team will be able
to move closer achieving the project goals.
Collaboration is
generally believed to be the most satisfactory long term approach to
conflict resolution. Collaboration is desirable when each person's
position is too important to compromise and when each has valuable
knowledge that needs to be contributed. Collaboration is important in
organisations with a quality approach where people need to learn from
each other. It should also be used when damaged relationships need to be
repaired and total commitment is required.
The advantages of
collaboration are that through working together and accepting each
other's contributions, team members can discover better solutions and
internal relationships become stronger.
Of course a little bit of
conflict is not all bad. In fact the balance of conflict and
collaboration can challenge people to bring about innovation and devise
more efficient and effective in ways of working together.
For project managers, the key to managing conflicts is to competently support the right attitudes that will build strong teams.