Conflict Resolution Activities

When a conflict develops within a Team, even between any two members at official or personal level, it causes a drag on the whole team seriously affecting its performance. If other members also start taking sides, then it could develop into a massive scale tug-of-war jeopardizing the team relationships, morale and productivity.

Therefore the team leader should be alert to reading the bad signs early and nip them in the bud without allowing a simple misunderstanding to develop into a festering wound. It can be of help to try out some conflict resolution games as well.

Things to avoid in your conflict resolution activities

Here are some things you should refrain from doing as the Team Leader in your conflict resolution activities:

Ignoring It

Pretending ignorance may seem the best course of action trusting time to heal the problem. But it might not always workout. Although everything may seem to have healed on the surface, the wound might stay dormant underneath and manifest itself on a later day in greater ferocity.

Crushing It

By forcing the two parties to make up, without your looking into the problem, you are only suppressing it temporarily, sending the problem underground until someday it erupts like a volcano with tremendous force.

Advising the Parties Concerned to Sort out Matters

This one among conflict resolution activities is a little better than quashing, but it is a negative approach not becoming of a team leader who should act more responsibly and guide at least one of your team members to intervene and resolve the problem even if you cannot get directly involved at present.

Being Biased

It is quite easy to side with one party and induce the other party to submission, but this is precisely something that you should not do at all costs.

Activities and attitudes to use in your conflict resolution

You should be absolutely neutral and impartial in your conflict resolution activities. As the Team Leader, you can –

• Call both parties to a discussion
• Get their consent to your mediation in the matter
• Get them to understand that one party has to listen without interrupting or responding while the other party relates his version of the conflict.
  
• After each has spoken separately, allow them to discuss in a gentlemanly manner in your presence and try to better understand each other’s grievances and points of view.
• Encourage them to get educated on how to co-exist amicably with fellow-workers. Introduce a few well thought out conflict resolution games that every one can play together.

This process should workout well for the future too by making the team members themselves realize the long-term benefits of maintaining cordial relationships at the workplace.