Solving conflict in the workplace: simple techniques create high performance teams.

• Author: Dee, Kevin M.
• Position: HR Matters - Human resource

How many people really look at how they speak to one another on a close point of view? I do when it comes to resolving conflict in the workplace. When there are issues that need to be brought up, most people try to avoid doing so because they're uncomfortable in conflict. Let's face it; no one seeks out conflict--unless of course they're from a culture that values conflict. This is very rare unless you're from New York or Boston.

Most of us avoid conflict wherever possible in order to maintain a social nicety often called "professionalism" in the workplace. But not putting the important issues on the table to be discussed and resolved means that instead you will never achieve high performance and high trust. Back-channel politics, rumors, and innuendo take hold when even the most minor conflicts are held on to and not resolved. A workplace that lacks comfort with conflict and disagreement can set the tone for team dysfunction.

There is, however, a simple technique you can practice that will create win-win situations in most workplace conflicts. Practice caring, candor, curiosity, and collaboration--the four "Big Cs" in conflict resolution.

Be Caring

The first step in creating a high-performance team is to develop trust. Each person must feel that their teammates will back them up and have their best interest at heart. I'm not saying you even have to like the person you are working with, but you must respect them in order for this to occur. When we don't surface issues or address problems in a timely manner, trust is eroded. Too often managers and supervisors and coworkers tend to dance around the real issues. Learning to practice the four Big Cs goes to the heart of the matter without appearing to be an attack. Just raising the issue that needs to be talked about is often enough. When you do this from a caring place, people respond favorably. Because people don't care what you know until they know that you care.

Be Candid and Curious

The next step is being able to be candid about a matter to get to the heart of it more quickly. However, this only works if initially you are talking about common facts between two people. For example, "Your TPM report was due by Thursday and that didn't occur." That statement alone is candid (and hopefully backed by facts), yet most people might become defensive if that is all you said. Add curiosity to your statement by adding a question such as, "That's very unlike you, is there something going on?"

You then...