Conflict and the PM

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124The past couple of weeks, I’ve had a front row seat to some organizational conflict occurring in a couple of different companies. One of the groups has asked me to get involved to help resolve it, and I’ve been loosely involved with both sides in the other company.

Looking in from the outside, you can see the toll conflict takes on an organization. Productive work and progress doesn’t get accomplished. Instead, the activities go something like this:

  1. Person A gets angry with Person B
  2. B reciprocates
  3. A & B go to their respective corners and construct different (competing) narratives about why this conflict began and why it should continue
  4. A & B recruit allies in their fight, seeking out people who will take up their cause
  5. The conflict escalates

If you are a project manager, you have almost certainly gone through this cycle at some point, but it’s a good reminder that the better way is to sit down and resolve it face to face. If you can play that role within your organization, it’s a great thing. Pull the parties together before they begin to recruit allies. Bring everyone in one location and try to work through, helping each side understand the other and reach a tenable solution. It’s the role of a mediator, and it’s one that takes a careful touch and some maturity and experience, but it also shows leadership.

Keep in mind that managers who make a practice of resolving conflicts go a lot further in their careers than managers who win conflicts.