Avionics News May 2015 - 52

BUSINESS BASICS

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employees build up resentment, create infighting, or
show some other signs of stress that puts them in fightor-flight mode, according to Acas.
If they perceive the conflict as a zero-sum situation,
they may either compete aggressively or acquiesce. One
person gets to win, while the other surrenders his needs
and desires to please the other person. That stops the
conflict in the short term, but it also causes problems
in the long run - especially if the loser decides to find
happiness elsewhere.
For the good of the entire team or organization,
the best approach is to face the conflict head-on, in
a rational way, either through collaboration, where
employees work together to find a mutually beneficial
solution, or through compromise, where they both find
middle ground.
And while those are the best tactics, they're not
necessarily the easiest. Both require each party to
understand where the other is coming from. In addition
to the desire for a resolution, this requires each to
possess active listening skills.
This starts with open-ended questions that allow both
sides to gather and share information about how the
conflict affects them. In other words, they should be
able tell each other what's important to them about this
situation, according to mediator Lee Jay Berman.
Collecting this information shows where there's room
for opportunities for both cooperation and compromise.
Along the way, it allows each to feel some compassion
for the other, to build trust, and to hear that the other
is just trying to do his job well. Each should be open
to ideas other than his own if it presents a satisfactory
result. With that done, they should congratulate
themselves for their agreement, according to Berman.
They did hard work, and neither should feel they lost
more than they won.
Tempering tempers
The ultimate goal is to arrive at a resolution that's
positive for everyone involved. It doesn't always
happen, but as a manager of conflicting employees, the
ball is in your court.
Your first step is to address the conflict quickly - and
in person - but not before parties have time to calm
down. Any productive discussion needs clear-headed
participants who listen to understand, not listen to
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argue back, according to Berman. Besides, emotional
explosions do little to reinforce employees' professional
reputation, and they do less to help them see the big
picture. In fact, they need to treat each other with
respect - and with the assumption that the other person
wants to fix the issue, too.
Once the anger and frustration have run out of gas,
assist your people to clearly define the issue at hand,
and, hopefully, admit that there may be different sides
to it. Apologize if you, or someone on your team, did
something genuinely wrong, and acknowledge their
emotions and perspective. Draw out what bothered them
so much and why it was so important. Get all the broken
pieces on the table before you start to put them back
together, according to Berman.
Only when you've heard all sides should you start
troubleshooting a solution. Keep in mind each party's
motivations; ultimately, solving it will require them
to achieve that objective, whether it's saving face to
their boss or finishing a project on time and budget.
Depersonalize the issue by addressing the problem, not
the people involved, so avoid blame. Focus instead on
defining the actions or behaviors everyone can assume
that make things better. Work in the future tense, not on
what happened in the past.
If this process binds up and emotions rear again, take
time out. Remind participants that it's up to them to
determine if this is a battle that's really worth fighting.
If it is, then it's important enough to fix, according
to Myatt. If there's enough at stake, they'll keep the
lines of communication open. And speaking of picking
battles, one way to do this is to ask each party to rate
the issue on a scale of one to 10; if the scores are widely
divergent, it may be wise for an employee with the
lower score to give up on this one and save his powder
for ones that rate higher, according to Berman.
Once the conflict is resolved, implore your people
to let go and move on. They don't have to become best
buds, but they will have to interact professionally. Move
forward yourself by looking for other areas of potential
conflict and work to diffuse them now, according to
Myatt. If nothing else, consider how you could have
reacted better.
Conflicts are inevitable; it just comes with the
"people" territory. But how you solve the problem is a
choice. When it's done appropriately, you allow your
people to get back to work and avoid other problems in
the future. You don't need clashing colleagues; you need
your shop to be a collegial place to work. q
Avionics News May 2015

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