Conflict Management Strategy #10of10
Most organisations address their conflicts in a piecemeal and reactive way causing little or nothing that is either chronic or systemic to change.
Conflicts are often early warning signals of a system that is crumbling and the birth pangs of a new order on the brink of emergence. As organisations face increasing demands for rapid change, conflicts accumulate along the fault lines that exist within their structures, relationships and cultures.
Therefore, there is a huge and potentially existential opportunity cost with leaving conflicts unresolved as measured by a failure to adapt, improve, and thrive.
Organisations need complex, collaborative, participative, conflict resolution structures, systems, processes and cultures that are designed to unearth, explore, and resolve all disputes and leverage the wisdom trapped within them as a source of organisational learning.
The idea of “conflict resolution systems design” offered by William Ury (et al) invites organisations to analyse their dispute history, identify repeating patterns, engage multiple perspectives and apply alternative methodologies that nurture organisational learning.
I believe that organisations with rule-based conflict cultures that discourage honest communication and the expression of intense emotions are at a competitive disadvantage to those organisations committed to an open culture where participation and free expression is normalised.
Organisations are only just beginning to recognise that innovation and collaboration flourish in conflict and that the win-lose belief system in adversarial cultures that seeks to dampen and control diversity is not fit-for-purpose in a rapidly changing world.
To begin this process in your organisation consider undertaking a conflict audit.
Conflict management strategy #1 Decode the culture
Conflict management strategy #2 Listen Empathetically
Conflict management strategy #3 Search for Hidden Meanings
Conflict management strategy #4 Reframe Emotions
Conflict management strategy #5 Separate Wheat from Chaff
Conflict management strategy #6 Embrace Paradox
Conflict management strategy #7 Learn from Difficult Behaviour
Conflict management strategy #8 Walking the Talk
Conflict management strategy #9 Wisdom of Resistance
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This conflict management series is inspired by the work of Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith (2011, 3rd edition) “Resolving Conflicts at Work”
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