“Conflict is inevitable, combat is optional.” - Max Lucado
Success in managing interpersonal conflict in the workplace does not happen automatically. It takes some perspective and planning.
Articles and Guides
- Take a short anonymous quiz to assess conflict competence for yourself and your group. Conflict competence assessment (link). [NEW for 2023]
- Help defuse entrenched conflict by employing the "Gift of Feeling Heard and Understood" (link). [NEW for 2023]
- Plan for difficult conversations in the virtual realm: Difficult Conversations, Virtually Speaking (link). And here's a checklist to aid in basic planning: Virtual Meeting Template.
- Work well with "hybrid" (in-person and virtual) teams by adjusting decision-making methodologies: Better Decision-Making Online (link).
- Recognize abrasive behaviors and exercise "strong curiosity" to reduce the impact of those behaviors: Handling Abrasive Behaviors in the Workplace (link).
- Are you inadvertently undermining co-workers or doing things that might be perceived as gaslighting? (See "In This Section" above for more info on gaslighting.) Take the following anonymous quiz hosted on an external website: "Am I Undermining My Coworkers?" (link)
- When a difficult meeting or group interaction needs a gentle guiding hand from within, these three strategies will help, even when you don't have a leadership role: "Facilitating from Within" (link).
- Venting about people or problems at work may feel good, but can lead to greater frustration for yourself and colleagues. Learn how to Turn Workplace Venting into Productive Problem-Solving (link).
- Take advantage of the "power of pause" to essentially "reboot" your brain in conflict when you feel your "freeze, flight, fight, please" instincts kick in: The Power of Pause to Defuse Conflict (link).
