Georgia International Leadership Conference (GILC) : Conflict Resolution Session

-->“Never double that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has has.” 

I was taking part at this conference on Feb 19th to 21st at Eatonton, GA. This conference is meant for encouraging the leadership among students associated with various university campus organizations. Web sire about this conference is here. Conflicts are not necessarily an issue in the organization, conflicts can be both functional leading to a team synergy and also lead to dysfunctional outcome where the team undergoes a break up and is far off from reaching their common desired goal. It was interesting to see the other side of conflicts, some times these are required to make difference and progress. Of course, not all conflict ends up in a functional result. This session was presented by a peer-leader from Georgia Southern University. I am attempting to recapture my thoughts after this session.

Sources of Group Conflicts

The session started off from asking for various sources of conflicts. Among many sources starting from small personal differences to deep philosophical differences. Values of team members might be conflicting and the personal views can unnecessarily interfere with the interest of the group, which needs to be avoided. Things that need to be taken care to pin point the origin of a conflict is to think about the attitudes of team members, their goals/expectations-the process and expected outcomes, roles and responsibilities of team members. Some sources might be out or control like the limited resources to the organization, 'rigid personalities', unavoidable inter dependency.

Now this might be out of some literary work that there are two types of conflicts:

Cognitive: Conflicts aimed at issues , ideas , principles, or process and not related to individuals.

Affective: Conflict aimed at people, emotions, or values and personal in nature.

Constructive: People change and grow personally from the conflict they go through. Typically these type of conflicts increases the involvement of everyone affected by the conflict. It builds cohesiveness and mutual understanding.

Destructive: Here no decision is reached and the problem continues to exist. Unfortunately, it diverts the energy away from more value-add activities. It destroys the morale of the team members and often polarizes or divides the team.

Effective Teams and team members

Smaller teams are formed to tackle different aspects within a group. Executive board is a select group of people from different backgrounds. Successful teams need members who know: basics of conflict resolution, delegation of work, and union building. Its fall off is to develop a strategy for training and preparing members for individual roles and group process.

Creating Group Constitution

Know who created it and what was it intended to include and how is it important to help the group in reaching its goals. It needs to be open for change with time and group needs.

Team Leader’s Role in Conflict

One of the main responsibilities of any President or group leader is to resolve conflict. Two key roles of a group leader are to remain impartial and to facilitate understanding among the group members. 

Preventive Strategies

Learn how to prevent or minimize conflict. Try setting up the ground rules and develop a team agreement on the common rules. Make sure that all the team members are present in drafting the rules and agree with all the content. Make sure that the goals of the organizations are included in the draft. Try having people on the team on voluntary basis this is a best natural way to minimize conflicts.

Ways to Resolve from presenter's perspective

Work cooperatively on the issue. Have a trained facilitator. Identify key issues without making accusations. View the issues from the other points of view beside the two conflicting ones. Brain storm to find the middle ground. Come up with ideas to resolve the conflict or solve the problem. Draw up a formal agreement. Monitor and celebrate the team success.

Tips of Handling

Manage stress while remaining alert and calm. Control your emotions and behavior. Pay attention to the feelings of others. 

Goal Mis-alignment

Ways to manage it develop a goal statement at the beginning of the project. Review the original goal with the team and evaluate the team performance.