Think about the last time there was a conflict at your company. Did it cause a lot of drama—stopping people from getting their jobs done and creating lots of bad feelings along the way? Or even worse, produced an atmosphere of fear, anger and distrust? Or was it an occasion for your team members to grow?
Both scenarios can be true. Disagreements can absolutely kill your company or lead to tremendous opportunities. The outcome all depends on how the conflict is handled.
In this blog post, we’re going to explore both the dangers and opportunities of conflict. When you understand both, you’ll be better equipped to succeed in resolving disagreements. So, let’s get started.
Common Conflict in the Workplace
According to a report from the CPP Global Human Capital Report, nearly half (49%) of all conflict at U.S. companies is caused by personality clashes and warring egos. Stress and heavy workloads closely follow. And finally, culture plays a role. 1 Here are a few examples of common disagreements:
- Personality clash: Whether you have three employees or 1,000, there will be issues with people. Your employees all have different backgrounds, experiences, values and styles—all which shape their personalities. When employees don’t accept these differences, clashes ensue.
For example, Blake is brash and always speaks his mind. Honesty, for him, is the only policy. Sarah is a people pleaser who would rather die than say anything bad about a fellow coworker. Diplomacy for her is the best way to go.
Sarah thinks Blake is rude and irresponsible for his remarks. Blake believes Sarah is milquetoast and is too “soft” to work at the company. If the pair don’t find a solution, the conflict will continue to get worse.
- Warring egos: We’ve all met them. The person with the big ego who thinks so highly of themselves, they’re just horrible to be around. They’re arrogance or hubris causes them to be unlikeable. And a lot of times, the way they get even more of an ego boost is to put others down or making fun of them. They can delay projects or sabotage them just to make a co-worker look bad. Even worse—when they come in contact with a fellow egoist. Fireworks definitely take ensue.
- Stress: In today’s hectic workplace, stress is about as common as hot dogs at a baseball game. In small amounts, stress can be good for you—keeping you on your toes and hyper-focused. But when you’re dealing with a lot of it, it can hurt you both physically and mentally and is a definite trigger for conflict if it’s not taken care of.
For example, Sally has been working incredible hours because of an overwhelming workload. She is stressed out of her mind trying to keep up, which has led to anxiety and irritability. Any time someone talks to her, there’s a good chance she’ll snap at them causing discord and hard feelings if the issue isn’t resolved.
- Occupying the same space: Conflict also exists when two people try to inhabit the same place at the same time. When two people vie for the same parking place, two athletes collide on the playing field or two physicians need the same operating room for their respective patients—conflict exists. And that clash produces danger.
The Cost of Conflict: The Dangers
Now that we know about some of the causes, what are the dangers of disagreements in the workplace? At its most basic, the cost of conflict when handled incorrectly is incredibly expensive for companies. According to the same report above, the average cost is $359 billion in paid hours each year for American businesses. That’s about 2.8 hours per week per employee in time spent dealing with conflict.
Besides the bottom line, conflict can hurt your employees and managers. When conflict occurs, the following negative consequences can result.
- Emotions rise
- Tensions increase
- Relationships are broken
- Team cohesiveness is strained
- Morale is harmed
- Collaboration between people and teams is reduced
- Productivity declines
- Job satisfaction decreases
The Opportunity of Conflict
Like we said earlier, conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it can’t be completely eliminated. Conflict presents the opportunity to change, to struggle, to grow and to refine systems. It’s like mediation expert Craig Runde says, “Differences can be the sources of creativity, or they can serve to divide.”
We may not look forward to the struggle that results in growth, but we must recognize it.
The admonition of a high school football coach rings true in this context: “No pain, no gain!”
Internationally known leadership expert Patrick Lencioni thinks conflict is so important, it’s critical to your company’s success. He says one of the most important things a team has to do is engage in good, healthy conflict. Most of the teams he works with avoid conflict with a lot of false harmony. On the other end of the scale is destructive conflict, which Lencioni says, “feels like hell.” He believes you need to be in the middle—right on the edge of heading toward destructive.
When conflict occurs in a business setting, the following positive consequences can result:
- Important issues are identified
- Perspectives are shared
- Understanding increases
- Creative options are found
- Higher quality ideas are generated
- Cohesiveness among team members enhances
- Feelings of acceptance and competence are maximized
- Effectiveness improves
- Job satisfaction rises
Examples of Conflict Opportunities
- Conflict can be a tremendous opportunity to improve communication. If there are disagreements present, in a project for example, it should be a manager’s role to lead the team to discuss the issues and let voices be heard. Together, the team can come up with a solution that works for everyone. Like we said above, this leads to increased understanding, shared perspectives and higher quality of ideas that are shared. One quick tip: Make sure there are ground rules for discussion of disagreements, so your discussions don’t turn into petty fights.
- Effectiveness improves and job satisfaction arises when you avoid groupthink. A great example is a company that’s about to make a major leadership decision on how it’s going to set up its new division. The CEO is not a fan of conflict, so his board never pushes back on her suggestions. The CEO lays out her plan and the board members each tell her how wonderful it is, even though they believe it’s not going to work. No other options or issues are discussed. The CEO puts the plan into place and chaos happens. If she would have heard ideas from her team or learned about possible issues instead, she could have come up with a new plan that worked for everyone and was five times as effective and with everyone a lot happier.
Although it is easy to forget about the opportunities of conflict when we are shouting our way through a heated argument and struggling to overcome a disagreement, it is important to remember that the same conflict that seems divisive at the moment is also the foundation on which a strong, durable relationship can be built.
Where To Go From Here
The Lowry Group, LLC (TLG) is the outgrowth of almost three decades of experience helping organizations achieve their next level of success throughout the United States and around the world, including conflict resolution. TLG’s work began as an external consulting, systems design, and training resource composed of faculty from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law. But TLG has moved beyond its academic roots to respond to repeated requests from corporate and government organizations for “real world” assistance. The TLG team has been chosen by scores of major organizations that must become more effective in negotiating sales, business transactions, client relationships and disputes.
Conflict is an inherent part of life. Left unchecked, however, it can bring even the biggest and well-intentioned organizations to heel. What makes companies and individuals truly successful is the ability to ably manage conflict. We created ConflictStop as the only resource you need to identify, resolve, and manage conflict. From CEOs to small business owners, and to anyone managing a team – developing the skills to navigate conflict is not just important, it’s imperative.
