Team Conflic Management

“Disagreements, debates, differing perspectives, clashing ideologies, and justice struggles are inevitableвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ(Dekker, 2003, p.3). There’s no way around it, when more than one person is set to accomplish a task, the majority of the time there’s going to be some sort of disagreement. How individuals deal with this disagreement decides how well the team will work in a group from that point on. When a problem is not resolved and just let go, someone in the group feels hurt and may hold the group back down the road. Group members should never let a problem go unresolved, since you are only as strong as your weakest link. “Slow down, step back, and try to figure out what is going on (crinfo.org, 2007)”. There’re three basic steps to conflict resolution: Address, Converse, and Move-On.

Step one is very simple, when a problem arises in the planning of a team project, the problem should be addressed right away. “It is much easier and much safer to ignore the necessary conflict and play ostrich” (Heathfield, 2007). Unresolved conflicts can cause more problems longer down the process. “Unresolved conflict does not go away; unresolved conflict can turn into a full boil at any time” (Heathfield, 2007). Conflict is needed for teams to get down to the business at hand. It’s the only way that we can make decisions together. Decision-making within a group is a disagreement until the group finds a resolution in the end. If something doesn’t look right or isn’t going in the right direction and no one says anything, the whole team becomes lost. The topic may be hard to bring back to discussion if your team has moved on from that part of the project. What some people need to understand is that not everyone is the same. I couldn’t believe it myself when I read it. Yes, there’s no one like you who thinks the same, just like you, isn’t that hard to believe? There’s going to be differences in opinions when dealing with a group of individuals and going to be so many ideas going around. Stay on track and speak up when needed and move on to resolving that problem.

Step two is getting down to it the problem and working it out. Conflict is a problem when it: hampers productivity, lowers morale, causes more and continued conflicts, and causes inappropriate behaviors (McNamara, 1997). When a problem is addressed to the group, every member should be involved; there’s no deciding of what to do unless everyone is on board. If a decision can’t be made then there are two ways of dealing with it. One is to moving on to the next idea and leave the ones that were originally discussed on the back burner. There’s time lines that have to be made in our groups so that might be the best way of dealing with any problems with the team working together. The other option is to take a team vote where the outcome goes to the majority. When working out a problem, try to be open-minded and try to make a gesture toward resolving the conflict. If you feel like your being attached, step back and take a breath. Put yourselves in that person’s shoes and try to see where they’re coming from. The Conflict Resolution Network website stated, “you should only attack the problem and never the person” (crnhq.org, 2007). Calmly present your side and see if something can be worked out.

Step three can be hard for some but it has to come down to everyone moving on. This step can’t be accomplished or even