Conflicts in the project? How to make the best of it!

What is conflict management?

When people work together, different expectations, working styles and personalities come together. Conflicts are therefore unavoidable, especially in stressful day-to-day project work. There are many possible areas of conflict: between team members, between different departments, or between the project team and the client. Conflict management deals with recognizing, understanding, managing or resolving and preventing these conflicts at an early stage. While conflicts initially have a negative impact on project work, they are not just useless disruptive factors. Rather, they also offer opportunities, for example to discover innovation potential or uncover hidden problems that would otherwise remain in the background. A conflict is often like an early warning system: it signals that something in the project is not running optimally. Conflicts could therefore be seen as a kind of “construction site” in the project – not always pleasant, but sometimes necessary in order to achieve better results in the long term. If a team approaches conflicts constructively, they can lead to real improvement.

Recognizing and understanding conflicts

If you want to deal with conflicts profitably, you first have to recognize and understand them. Smouldering conflicts can often be recognized intuitively by a few signs:

• The project team or individual employees no longer speak openly with each other or avoid each other.
• Information is withheld.
• Employees show a sudden lack of interest in certain topics, possibly even signs of resignation, inner withdrawal, work to rule or they are sick more often
• The error rate increases and deadlines are no longer met
• Arguments or aggression in the team, reproaches, unfriendliness, sarcastic remarks become more frequent

If a project manager observes one or more of these signs, it is important to act quickly, as the earlier a conflict is recognized, the greater the chance of minimizing its negative effects.
The next step is to understand the causes of the conflict. To do this, it is a good idea to have open discussions with the opposing parties in order to understand the individual fronts as well as possible. This will make it easy for you to recognize the nature of the conflict:

• Factual conflicts: Factual conflicts are often caused by differing opinions or views on a matter, a lack of clear objectives or a project manager who is reluctant to make decisions. When time, budget or personnel are scarce, such tensions grow like weeds, especially when project employees are heavily involved in the project alongside their line function. Disagreements, for example about the prioritization of the respective tasks or about the technical approach, often occur in such a context.
• Role conflicts: In a project team, each employee should take on a specific role and thus fulfill defined tasks. However, if it is not clear exactly who is responsible for what, disputes and even competition often arise. But even with defined roles, disputes can arise. This is often because expectations are automatically placed on certain roles. If these expectations are not met because the holder of the role understands their role differently, conflicts arise.
• Communication conflicts: Small misunderstandings in communication can quickly develop into major conflicts if they are not resolved immediately. Resistance from team members, for example because they were not included in important decision-making processes, is also a communication conflict. A lack of rules regarding communication can also cause such conflicts.

Strategies for dealing with conflicts

There are various conflict management strategies that can be used depending on the nature and severity of the conflict:

• Avoidance: Some conflicts are small enough that they can initially be ignored. As it can happen that small conflicts become more acute when they are addressed, but occasionally resolve themselves due to time lag or natural developments in the course of the project, tact should be exercised here. But be careful: if you ignore minor conflicts for too long, they can also build up and escalate at a later date.
  Advantage: Less effort and time saved on minor conflicts.
  Disadvantage: Postponed conflicts can lead to greater resentment in the long term.
• Concede (adaptation): This strategy is suitable when it is more important to keep the peace or when the issue of the conflict is of secondary importance to one party. In such cases, one party can adapt to the other and refrain from asserting their own interests.
  Advantage: Can strengthen harmony in the team and improve the relationship of trust.
  Disadvantage: If the same person always gives in, it can lead to frustration and an imbalance.
• Finding a compromise: In a compromise, both parties to the conflict make concessions in order to reach a joint solution. This strategy is often pragmatic and effective if the goal is a quick, fair solution. Although each side does not gain everything it wants, neither does it lose the conflict completely.
  Advantage: Both sides gain something and the conflict is often resolved quickly.
  Disadvantage: Can lead to superficial solutions that do not fully address the problem, as neither side is completely satisfied.
• Cooperate (win-win strategy): The cooperative strategy aims to find a solution that is beneficial for all parties involved. Both parties actively work together to disclose their needs and wishes and find a creative solution that is satisfactory for all parties. Cooperation is time-consuming, but is the most sustainable strategy for finding lasting solutions.
  Advantage: Often leads to long-term viable solutions and promotes mutual trust.
  Disadvantage: Requires time, patience and the willingness of both parties to deal with the problem.
  Our tip: If project managers notice that interpersonal or factual conflicts are coming to a head or are being swept under the carpet altogether, which has a negative impact on the project, then it can help to moderate the conflict as the project manager and thus achieve a win-win situation. This means that the manager or an external mediator helps the team with great sensitivity to separate the relationship level and the factual aspects of the conflict and thus reach an agreement.
• Escalation: Passing on a decision to the next higher instance often has a very negative effect. Especially if there is no longer any communication between two parties and this is only dealt with via the next higher superiors. However, there are many situations in project management that cannot be dealt with internally. A lack of personnel resources, an insufficient budget or the need for time off for special project assignments often require the intervention of the next higher authority.
  Advantage: Can be used to resolve conflicts that cannot be resolved by the project team itself.
  Disadvantage: Can quickly come across as “snitching” to the line manager and the line manager can also perceive it as negative to be drawn into a conflict.

General tips for dealing with and preventing conflicts

“You can’t not communicate,” said Paul Watzlawick. Communication is the decisive factor for success, especially in conflict management. An open and respectful approach, in which the team actively listens and shows understanding, creates the basis for preventing or resolving conflicts before they escalate. As this can be difficult due to the different characters and stress in projects, here are some tips on how conflicts can be prevented or mitigated.

• Stay calm and objective: Emotions can quickly boil over in conflict situations. However, this often leads to intensified conflicts. Therefore, try to remain calm and objective at all times.
• Make room for empathy: Even the most difficult colleague has their reasons for acting the way they do. Listening or asking friendly questions can often work wonders.
• Set boundaries: When things get difficult, it’s important to be clear about what’s okay and what’s not. In such cases, set clear boundaries politely but firmly.
• Active listening: Paying attention and asking questions can help to avoid misunderstandings.
• I-messages instead of you-messages: If a conflict has already arisen, it can quickly lead to both parties blaming each other. Instead of blaming others, it helps if the opposing parties use “I” messages and explain how they feel or how they perceived a situation.
• Regular feedback rounds: In regular feedback rounds, conflicts can not only be addressed directly and thus quickly resolved. Rather, such rounds can also help to identify potential conflicts at an early stage and thus prevent them from arising.
• Create clarity and structure: Conflicts often arise due to a lack of clarification of roles, unclear objectives or poor communication. Creating structure and clarity can have a preventative effect and often defuse conflicts before they escalate. Clear rules and expectations help to avoid misunderstandings.

Conclusion

Conflict management is not an easy task and there is rarely a “perfect” solution. However, with the right strategies, a little patience and good communication, many conflicts can be defused – often even in such a way that the project and the team emerge stronger.

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