10 Questions to Resolve Conflict

  Communications Management   ProjectsAtWork  

Conflict on projects can be physically and emotionally exhausting. Project managers need to ask the right questions to help mediate and resolve it.

Managing team members and encouraging them to work together toward a common goal is an essential skill that all project leaders should possess, but sometimes conflicts arise. In Conflict Resolution at Work for Dummies (Wiley Publishing, December 2009), author Vivian Scott recommends inviting the conflicted participants to sit down together and answer these questions:

What would you like to see happen? What does that look like for you? Ask these questions one right after another so your colleague can describe what he does want versus what he doesn’t want. He may ask for respect, but until he describes what respectful behavior looks like to him, you won’t know how to deliver on his request. Changing your behavior to match your definition of respect may not be what he’s looking for.

What would it take for us to be able to move forward? How do we get there? These questions help an employee describe specific steps that may include an apology or a better understanding of his perspective before he can get over it.

Are you willing to share the impact this has had on you? Are you willing to hear my perspective? Asking about a conflict’s impact moves the discussion from …

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