4. TEAMWORK AND COMMUNICATION
4.2 Managing Team Conflict
It’s important to recognize that whenever people work together in teams, there are bound to be challenges, and conflicts are likely to arise — and this is okay. People may have divergent opinions, perspectives, and ways of doing things. Some conflict, if managed effectively, can be productive and lead to more cohesive teams, stronger ideas, and unexpected innovations. Poorly managed conflict, however, can be detrimental to progress and team morale, and can even derail a team and the project entirely.
Often, conflict arises from confusion over team members’ roles and team goals. For example, if one team member’s goal is to exceed expectations (get an A+) on the project, and another’s is to simply make it “good enough” (B-), or “just pass the course,” their goals are misaligned, and this will show in work ethic and commitment to the project. If team members do not share the same goals, or if members are unsure of what their role is in the team, this can lead to anxiety, confusion, or even anger. This in turn can cause the following unproductive behaviours:
Isolating: breaking away from the team and just doing work on your their without collaborating with others or with minimal interaction. This can lead to inefficiency in the team, as they don’t communicate sufficiently with the team, are not involved in decision-making, and other team members don’t know what they are doing.
Hijacking: taking over the project and doing work without consulting with the team. This may arise out of anxiety about grades, or lack of trust in team members; hijackers may revise or redo work already done by others without consultation or permission. This can be frustrating and even feel disrespectful to other teammates who have worked hard on their contributions.
Hitchhiking: just coming along for the ride, but not contributing equitably. If a team member feels “left out,” is not clear on what they are supposed to do or how they are supposed to do it, they might feel anxious and simply “opt out.” Hitchikers may simply not show up, or they may make excuses for not attending team meetings (I’m too busy, I have a midterm, a rugby game, a trip planned, etc). Not meeting commitments makes extra work for other team members, which leads to resentments. Hitchhiking behaviour needs to be addressed early!
Enabling: being overly helpful (a “people pleaser”), taking on too much of the work to try to make up for other team members. “Hitchhikers” can start relying on “enablers” to pick up their slack. This can lead to frustration and potentially burn out when the enabler is not able to complete all the additional tasks they have volunteered to do.
How to deal with team conflict? The first strategy is to develop clear processes that help to prevent conflict where possible (see the GRIP model in Ch. 4.1). You can do this in the forming stage by creating clear team guidelines and expectations. Creating a Team Charter can help you define team goals, expectations for equitable contribution, and procedures for communicating, decision -making, and producing work. You can also define problem-solving approaches that your team will use when conflicts arise, and determine what kinds of behaviour will trigger a consultation with the instructor.
Think about conflicts or problems you have had in the past when working in teams. Can you think of ways you could have planned ahead to prevent them? Being proactive can prevent a lot of issues. For example, defining the criteria and protocols for removing a team member from the team will often prevent issues from going that far, because everyone knows how they will be held accountable. However, despite these preventative measures, conflict is bound to come up from time to time. You need to have effective strategies for managing it effectively when it does arise.
Conflict Management Strategies
Here is a list of some effective conflict management approaches to keep in your tool box:
- Acknowledge, understand, and value the diversity within your team; recognize team members’ various strengths and weaknesses, and play to your strengths, while acknowledging and trying to improve on your weaknesses. Team members should support each others’ growth and skill development.
- Avoid making assumptions about someone’s motivations or rushing to judgment; instead, approach differences of opinions with honest curiosity and compassion. Explore why you see things differently or behave in unexpected ways. Listen actively to understand other positions and perspectives.
- Use a problem-solving approach. Identify and define the problem objectively. What is the “unsatisfactory situation”? what negative impacts is it causing? What goal do you want to achieve? What objectives and constraints must be considered? Separate the “people” from the “problem” (avoid the “blame game”); don’t dwell on past actions and consequences; focus on coming up with solutions that benefit the whole team and allow you to move forward constructively.
- Don’t ignore problems or conflicts; deal with them head on; communicate issues quickly and directly with the whole team; review the Team Charter to remind you of the expectations and protocols you agreed to follow as a team. (Have regular check-in meetings where everyone can air their concerns.)
- Don’t “silo” (break up into smaller teams of “us” vs “them”); deal with issues as a team
- “Don’t sweat the small stuff;” don’t get side-tracked by minor differences of opinion or approach that don’t have a significant effect on the project; be willing to make some compromises.
- But keep in mind that compromise does not always lead to the best solution; be a strong, but diplomatic advocate for what you think is the best approach. Persuade, but don’t bully. Use your rhetorical skills to constructively convince your team to see your perspective. Your teammates will thank you for it in the long run.
- Focus on “interests” not “positions.” That is, focus on what is in the best interests of the team rather than on “being right” or “winning.” Try having one team member play “devil’s advocate” or use a debate format to argue for/against ideas in an objective and neutral way.
Reviewing the models for Understanding Team Dynamics (Ch. 4.1) may give you insights into some of the causes of team problems and ideas for solutions.
Part of learning to work in teams is learning to effectively manage team conflict. This skill will prove invaluable in the workplace, where you may be called up on to work with a variety of people, not all of whom you will get along with. That said, if you have diligently tried to manage your team’s conflict and the strategies are not working as well as you’d like, consult with your facilitator, instructor, or TA for additional support – before it’s too late to solve the problem. Especially if you feel like the problems is impacting the quality of your team’s work (your grade), you should alert the instructor as soon as possible. Your instructor will have additional “administrative” tools to help deal with the problem that are not necessarily available to you as students.
Working with other people can be satisfying and exciting, but will also inevitably lead to challenges throughout your academic and professional life. Learning and applying these strategies for how to address these challenges will provide you with valuable skills needed for professional success.
