Conflict Resolution for Project Managers

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.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_L_Young

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Conflict Management - The Use of Terms of Reference for Effective Project Management

Conflict Management:

Conflicts are involved in every project. Stakeholders can be part of those conflicts. It is the duty of the project manager to take them into confidence that conflicts have been recognized, clarified and will managed in good way. In a way that best appropriate solution of conflict will be provided by keeping politics aside. It is not an easy job for manager and may not be able to resolve the conflict individually but it is essential to make sure that conflicts are recognized and will be handled properly.

It is a time when action is required by the project sponsor and their actual value and responsibilities are needed. Methods for resolving the conflict should be devised after consulting the project sponsors and other senior members in the business. Managers' task is to provide important points required to develop project schedule. For developing project schedule, managers' task is to provide all necessary requirements needed for the project.

Terms of reference (ToR): for the whole team

Project manager & team should be clear about terms of reference. It is a common happening that there exist significant differences in the answers given by the person involved in the business when they are asked about ToR. So, it is very important that they all especially key personnel must have complete understanding of ToR. It should be specific related to your project by providing clear & meaningful terms. It is very often that new managers take time in developing complete understanding of their responsibilities; this type of attitude can give birth to serious problems.

Just like as in the case of manger, informing each key team member about their responsibilities along with their roles is very important when tasks are being assigned to them. All these responsibilities should be defined in clear terms. Manager is required to monitor their responsibilities that whether they are defining and following key inputs properly like requirements and providing appropriate required outputs like specifications, deliverables, documents etc. Getting input oriented comments are very important instead of comments after development activity.

Few project managements tips are given below that can be helpful in the growth of business.

1. Only select the right project that can give you highest benefits in return of your efforts. Adjust the project according to your business strategy that can give you the right direction for achieving your goals. Cost benefit analysis and return on investment are two ways of making right project selection.
2. Evaluate your performance regarding project execution. Having defined specific outcomes and objectives are essential for every project. If end result is not clear and scope is not defined then it can merely be an activity but not a project.

3. When more than one stakeholder is involved then it is necessary to keep all project scope, objectives, deliverables and budget into consideration. Involvement of all stakeholders is very essential.
4. It is not wise to wait for problem to occur. Monitor project contingency plans regularly. Their modification is required according to changing situations and need to keep them in line with latest project status.

5. Realistic and practical budgets should be planned. Allowances are required for bad and emergency situations. Budget should be constructed according to your resources.

6. Some questions should be answered before starting a project like what will be the process for updating all stakeholders and members about project proceedings, whether team members require any support for doing their responsibilities in an efficient way, which type of training is needed (on the job or off the job) and does trainer need any training.

7. Having adequate skills and expertise is very crucial. The person who is good in one job not necessarily be in another job as well. It is required to learn and cooperate with experts. The each penny you spend for getting the expertise of someone because of your specific requirements, have much worth.

8. It is necessary to put main focus on quality. Quality testing in the project should be carried out as early as possible. Sufficient time should be there in a schedule for reworking and retesting. Errors should be removed in a way that doesn't let new ones to happen. Errors can be reduced by keeping the requirements and design according to the project specifications.

9. Some questions regarding after project support and the person who will be responsible for it, about user problems, maintenance allowance and procedure for implementation of improvement should be answered.
10. Your vision should be long term. By compromising on quality at any stages you can bear loss in the form of repairs and replacements. You have to identify the areas where you can.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dora_Tarver

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