Katya Laviolette, chief people officer at 1Password. Passionate about all things people.
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Conflict at work is inevitable. According to recent research from the Myers-Briggs Company, employees spend an average of 4.34 hours each week dealing with work-related conflict—twice as much as in 2008. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
In a fast-paced hypergrowth environment, avoiding conflict—or even delaying when you address it—is one of the worst things you can do for your company. By hashing out disagreements as soon as they arise, leaders can foster understanding and clear the air before interpersonal tensions solidify into lasting grudges.
Conflict can be draining and dispiriting. But with the right approach, it can also be incredibly productive. Here are five strategies for getting to conflict faster, so you can unleash its potential to drive positive change.
1. Start with HR.
As workplaces evolve rapidly and employees begin to expect more from their companies, HR partners are at the center of the action. We’re navigating new conflicts daily—whether between leaders and their teams, heads of different departments or employees and their colleagues. This requires deep empathy, abundant listening skills, clear communication and creative problem-solving.
To adopt a conflict-positive culture, one strategy is having each HR team member actively search out the conflicts that are percolating across the organization. What are the key ideas, strategic questions, issues and sticking points that are generating the most disagreement? What rifts are emerging within or between different departments? Simply put, what is it that’s just not working?
Then, instead of smoothing over those rifts with superficial solutions, encourage HR partners to bring issues to the fore and help teams explore them to the fullest. This can be accomplished through structured listening tours, interviews, post-mortems, surveys and informal “coffee chats.”
2. Establish a culture of kindness.
When we think about workplace conflict, the word “kindness” doesn’t immediately spring to mind. But it should. Respect and kindness are at the heart of a healthy conflict culture.
One of my company’s overarching values is “Put people first,” which we define as “being kind, celebrating others and working together to deliver results.” But early on, it became clear that some colleagues misinterpreted the imperative as code for avoiding conflicts, papering over hard truths or burying disagreements. So we've done a lot of work to clarify and develop a culture in which people share hard truths in a kind but direct manner.
In a workplace, kindness is being intentional and genuine about setting others up for success. This involves giving clear, specific and timely feedback, even when the content may be hard to hear (or hard to deliver). In organizations that establish a culture of kindness, team members receive feedback that’s direct enough that they can act on it but delivered in the spirit of helping them improve. This also empowers them to share their own feedback with colleagues and leaders, creating a virtuous cycle.
3. Promote psychological safety.
Kindness is one element of psychological safety—the shared belief that team members can take risks, offer perspectives that may be unpopular and bring their full selves to their work without fear of negative consequences. It creates an environment where it's less daunting to question a senior leader’s idea or challenge the status quo.
Leaders can promote psychological safety by openly sharing what they’ve learned from their own mistakes. And when leaders approach employees who have different views from a place of genuine curiosity, they model this approach for others.
4. Emphasize certain interpersonal skills.
Being direct and kind while navigating conflicts doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Fortunately, it can be learned. All team members, not just senior leaders, should have ample opportunities to develop their listening, facilitation and conflict management skills.
The aforementioned Myers-Briggs study found a correlation between employees’ conflict management prowess and their sense of well-being in the workplace. Respondents who felt more secure in their ability to manage conflict also reported higher job satisfaction and a greater sense of belonging and feeling valued. This suggests that investments in employees’ conflict management skills can pay dividends in employee engagement.
5. Don’t stop until everyone is aligned.
If a conflict arises in a team meeting, leaders may be tempted to abandon the discussion when the meeting is over. But they must avoid that instinct. In some situations, it may be necessary to extend the meeting until the team reaches a decision that everyone is truly aligned on. If that isn’t possible, they should resume the discussion at the next meeting. These options are infinitely better than rushedly approving an unsatisfactory decision or game plan that may leave some team members quietly seething.
Even in the most conflict-positive cultures, it may be impossible to land on a solution that thrills everyone. But pre-mortems and post-mortems can significantly improve decision-making and conflict management processes over time. These approaches provide the time and space to work through conflicts before the next big project begins.
We Must Run Toward Conflict
IBM veteran Ginni Rometty famously advised that leaders “run toward conflict.” I couldn’t agree more. By facing conflict head-on, teams can pressure-test their ideas from all angles and refine them more quickly and comprehensively. They can then celebrate shared successes with confidence in their collective ability to tackle any challenges ahead.
It takes different personalities, opinions and perspectives to power a great organization. In fact, it’s the tension among diverse ideas and worldviews that makes greatness happen. By embracing conflict, instead of shying away from it, organizations can leverage their collective brainpower to the fullest.
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