Productive Conflict
Productive conflict is a strategy that gives management and employees a tool to work past differences and see breakthroughs when it comes to innovation and efficiency. A company thrives when employees have an environment in which they can thrash out ideas. Productive conflict is a way in which they can.
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Conflicts Are Inevitable
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Even the best business relationships run into conflict. An office filled with competitive employees is going to be filled with differences of opinion. Problems arise when conflict among employees does nothing to further company goals. Worse, it hinders those goals. Arguments are repeated and employees grow resentful, slowing production. Before long, poor attitudes and frustration have replaced teamwork and efficiency.
Solution
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Establishing productive conflict strategies can help with avoiding dissension and promoting a team atmosphere. It means having an environment in which employees feel free to express differences of opinion and not be subject to scorn or feel ignored by other employees or management. Arguments are fine as long as they lead to some form of consensus at the conclusion.
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Framing the Argument
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One of the best ways to engage in productive conflict is to reframe the way the argument is presented. Too often, both in business and in everyday life, people argue by listing faults or accusations against another person. A better method is to reframe these statements by making them personal. Instead of saying something like "Your idea is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard," try putting it into the first person. "I'm not sure I see how this idea can work," not only softens the blow, but takes away the attack and prevents the other person from getting defensive.
Encourage Curiosity
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Productive conflict is mostly about listening to everyone's side of the argument. There is a difference between hearing and listening. Instead of an atmosphere in which people are simply waiting to talk, or pulling out snippets of their co-worker's ideas so they can shoot them down, productive conflict promotes genuine curiosity. Few people are so adept in their field that they can learn nothing else. The more that employees feel that their feedback and opinions are valued, the more likely it is that they will make the effort to come up with great ideas.
Compromise
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It's almost a cliche, but compromise is at the heart of any productive conflict situation. Parties have to be willing to look for common ground in an argument and also be willing to give up some of their own ground to make a compromise. If employees in conflict can find the common center of an argument, they can usually work together to find a solution to the problem.
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References
- Photo Credit Three office workers image by Vladimir Melnik from Fotolia.com
