Tips to Turn Employee Conflicts into Idea-Generating Battlefields!
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success"
Great lines by Sir Henry Ford! But, with today’s workplace cultures and office set-ups where you have multi-generational workforce, people coming from different backgrounds, cultures, having different opinions, perspectives and attitudes towards work, is it possible to achieve success without making any noises? (Life with new Perspective)
Yes! The NOISES! Such diverse workforce on different grounds can never come to consensus aseveryone has his/her own perception and point of view on different matters. And this differenceof opinion, in no time, takes face of a CONFLICT!!
No organization is immune to such disagreements and clashes; especially when you have people working on mission-critical projects with shorter deadlines, more work pressure and restricted budgets.
Many organizations view these employee conflicts as time wasters and try to avert the situation as quickly as possible and do not approach it as it should be. As a result of this inefficient handling, there is a loss of productivity, higher stress levels and increased distrust among the workforce. (Increase Employee Productivity)
While there are many listed approaches to deal with these disputes and bring the arguing parties on a consensus, what leaders need to look are the greener pastures of these different issues. Organizations do have a brighter opportunity to grow as they have a great blend of talent. Some creative, some logical, some experienced, some go-getters and the hard-workers! Undoubtedly, pushing them to agree on same point is next to impossible! But why do that?
You must realize that these clashes are the ultimate source of new ideas and creative theories to deal with certain challenges. All you need to do is to handle these matters more intuitively to cultivate more trust and creative thinking among the employees. Let them choose to refuse, butmake sure they come up with better solutions!
Here are few approaches that can help you establish conflicts as brainstorming sessions that end up giving some innovative outcomes:
1. Change the Old Trend
Break the monotony and try to change the age-old formal ways of resolving conflicts. Old ways include bringing in mediators, soliciting employees, etc. You don’t have all this time to follow the protocol. Try to study the situation more closely and bring in innovative solutions to resolve it without harming the business. Use creative approach to put the unhealthy part back in the bud and focus on positive aspect.
2. Clean up the Negative Air
Turn your thoughts to positive
Unattended disputes may worsen the situation and sabotage the work environment. Thus,whenever any dispute arises, try to use it as an opportunity to resolve the matter at hand as wellas try to clear up the old buried negative energy also. This will lead to more engaged andprogressive work teams.
3. Use Conflict As Catalyst
Many view these disputes as a nightmare as they may damage the team spirit as well as the whole environment. Rather use them as a catalyst for growth. Whenever such situation arises, tryto proactively shift everyone’s focus towards the actual problem or challenge at hand. And then try using this difference of opinion to find an appropriate solution.
4. Define the End-Goals
The only way to see these conflicts as a process of finding better strategy or approach to get a work done is to make sure that everyone is well aware of the common goal. Define the end-goals clearly to each team member and make sure that the focus is not shifted from achieving the goals to suppressing one another’s inputs due to personal differences.
5. Make Them Understand Each Other’s Viewpoint
Once it is clear that they need to achieve the common goal, it will be easier to calm down the arguing individuals and make them sit and listen to each other’s perspective. This will help in evaluating every individual’s opinion and suggestion and then finding a solution through common consent.
6. Work on Emotional Intelligence
Re Gain Your Emotional Intelligence
No matter what, everyone must have control over their emotions. You must make them understand unless they come out of their comfort zones, they cannot achieve growth and success.And this is the reason why conflicts are the necessary evil! But, they must have enough maturity to deal with such situation and let it not affect their work spirit and enthusiasm if their suggestion is overruled by some else’s!
7. Let Them Extract Out Positive Aspects
Once you are through with the matter, it is resolved and the team is about to start working on the mutually agreed strategy, ask them to recall the matter and extract out the positives. This will help them understand how these heated arguments can be turned into healthy discussions if everyone tries to listen and understand each other’s opinions and focus on finding a solution rather than proving one’s own point.
Dovetailing the discussion, Conflicts are the Necessary Evil! They are bound to happen and one cannot avoid them. This is just a matter of perception and how you resolve the issue. These useful tips can help you turn conflicts into healthy discussions that can benefit your business leading to more innovative and workable solutions to deal with organizational challenges. (Ideas To Start A Business)
