Effective Communication Techniques in Conflict Management
By: Sorin Dumitrascu
Tags: Management, Teamwork, Conflict Resolution, Leadership, Conflict Management

Effective Communication Techniques in Conflict Management

Go beyond the level of individual skills and move towards organization-wide efforts

Photo by nevenova on depositphotos

Improving Communication to Handle Conflict

Communication problems are both the cause and the result of conflict in the workplace. When groups or individuals fail to communicate, they often find themselves in conflict. And when they are in conflict, they often fail to communicate.

Given this, communication skills are a vital element of your conflict handling repertoire. Communication is concerned with understanding other points of view. If you cannot see things from someone else’s viewpoint, then your positions become more and more polarized.

To improve your communication skills, you need to consider three essential techniques that will make their communication much more effective in conflict situations.

1. Link ideas to people — ideas should be linked to people so that they are not abstract concepts. Put a face to the issue, and you will be more sensitive about how you approach it. For example, if a person realizes her behavior is creating extra work for John the accountant, she may change her ways not just to be more efficient but also out of respect for John.

2. Establish the significance of issues — people’s issues are important to them, and ignoring or belittling them can have major implications. For example, you may not consider the death of your colleague’s cat a great tragedy, but your colleague may be very upset about it — you will need to know this if you are to react to it appropriately.

3. Show willingness to cooperate — listening is good, but explicitly stating you intend finding a compromise goes further. If you simply assume that the other person knows you are ready to give ground, you may be wrong, and the other person will show intransigence because he thinks that is what you are doing.

According to research about communication and conflict, the amount of communication between groups has a significant effect on the likelihood of conflict. The potential for conflict increases if there is too much or too little communication between groups. It is therefore possible to over communicate as well as under communicate. Therefore, the techniques for creating more effective communication must be applied with care.

Applying effective communication techniques

To apply these techniques in the workplace, you need to go beyond the level of individual skills and move towards organization-wide efforts implemented at the managerial level.

This shift in emphasis requires a translation of these simple techniques into organisational procedures that will improve communication. Ways of applying the techniques in practice include:

Linking ideas to people

Create cross-functional teams in which people work with a range of colleagues. Interactions will then lead to a wider recognition of individuals and their qualities. This technique is particularly useful in resolving role conflict based on different technical or professional backgrounds.

Establish the significance of issues

Organize a regular pattern of secondment (temporary transfer) between departments and functions. This will enable people to experience things from different perspectives. This is a useful technique for workers with a history of embedded conflict where the expectations of co-workers are fixed.

Show willingness to cooperate

Give certain individuals the specific job of coordinating understanding between departments. These people should be proactive individuals who will speed up communication by taking charge and energizing the process. Do not make this role too complex, and it will have an immediate impact.

Good communication does not depend on good fortune. Be proactive about improving communication and cooperation, because while clashing needs cause conflict, shared goals make people work together.

Reaching Acceptable Outcomes

You need your colleagues. You have to continue working with them. Therefore, it is important that you do not let conflict become so aggressive that it destroys your working relationship with your colleagues.

What you should be aiming for is an outcome that is satisfactory to both of you, but which does not surrender too many of your interests for the sake of the relationship.

The way to achieve this is to use an integrative bargaining style instead of a distributive bargaining style.

Integrative bargaining style — this is based upon the assumption that through compromise, both sides can achieve some outcome, and the intention is to maximize both outcomes.

Distributive bargaining style — this is based upon the assumption that the outcome is fixed, so that if you gain, someone else must lose. It is often also referred to as competitive bargaining.

The integrative approach is based upon the attitude that the best outcome of any conflict is when everybody gains something. An approach that yields solutions that are acceptable to all will feature three elements:

1. Planning — you need to distinguish between what you want and what you will accept (the bottom line). There is often a difference, which gives you flexibility. The other person will have their own range of wants. Try to identify their interests and establish what lies behind the position that they take. Then decide what you are willing to trade to help them get some satisfaction too.

2. Adopt a rational approach — in the actual negotiation, you need to adopt a rational approach and focus on the issues. Conflict is inevitably emotional, but personalizing it tends to be counter-productive — hurt feelings only serve to deepen conflict. State clearly what you want, explain why you want it, and show that you are willing to make compromises. Apply rational problem-solving techniques to safely move from argument to counter argument.

3. Establish tangible outcomes — you must work on outcomes that are not just platitudes. It is easy to agree to something, but then do nothing. Make sure that whatever you agree has direct benefits for both parties, is measurable, and includes a deadline. This gives you objective tools for monitoring the implementation of the resolution.

If you want to be successful in handling conflict with others, then do not forget how to plan the discussion, and conduct yourself rationally to produce an outcome that gives tangible benefits to all.