Workplace Conflict Resolution

Did you know that 65% of voluntary terminations are the result of unresolved workplace conflict? Not the sort of workplace conflict that turns nice people into bar brawlers or food fight participants in the company cafeteria or neighborhood diner.

I’m talking about “double secret” conflict – the most damaging kind.

Why do I call it “double secret” workplace conflict? Because most conflict in workplace is misdiagnosed as bad people doing bad things to each other for some unknown reason. Most of the time “double secret” workplace conflict is invisible to the naked eye.

People act nice toward one another and seem to be cooperating and doing what they’ve been tasked to do, but things never work out right, for no apparent reason.

Unresolved “double secret” conflict in workplace shows up in the results arising from it, such as poor business decisions. No matter how large or how small your organization the best decisions are those made jointly by the right people with the good of the whole as their sole motivation.

When one person feels that the only way they can “get back at” one of their team members or the organization in general – they may sabotage decisions, sometimes causing great harm.

By taking the attitude that their ideas are the only ones worth considering they force others to bend to their will. By delaying their own investigation into the alternatives they can put off decisions until they get their own way or until the decision is made without them – putting them in a prime “why didn’t you wait for my input” position if things go bad.

Look at your own organization – see how creative the other people are at manipulating you until they get their own way.

Another way that “double secret” conflict in workplace rears its ugly head is in turf wars and the dreaded NIH syndrome that is often displayed by the instigators. Turf wars are designed to keep people away from what’s yours. If they can’t get in and you can decide what gets out – they have to take your decisions at face value, whether they are accurate or disabling or not.

Business decisions made when only one person has access to the information upon which the decisions are based are flawed at best.

When the NIH syndrome is in place, ideas not invented here, are rejected out of hand. This may not look like conflict to you, if your vision of workplace conflict resembles the gunfight at the OK Corral, but it is just as deadly. When decisions are made based on untested assumptions they are rarely the best decisions possible.

The NIH syndrome insures that no one else’s input is considered – and the organization comes up the loser.

What should you do if you think there is “double secret” conflict in the workplace where you are? Most of you will probably continue to try to ignore it, put it down to other causes – things you can’t do anything about, so you won’t have to deal with it, or just figure it comes with the territory.

A few of you will look for a solution, but you will find them illusive – because you really can’t pinpoint a specific example and random poking around and generalizations only make people mad. The culprits go way under cover or fight back with such venom you’re sorry you ever thought it would work.

For those of you who are serious about dealing head on with “double secret” conflict in workplace, setting up programs or policies that offer workplace conflict resolution – well, you need help. By help I mean motivation – something people will pay attention to, like money, profit, additions to your bottom line – however you characterize the positive side of the ledger.

In other words you need to figure out how to quantify the loses resulting from “double secret” workplace conflict.  There are those in your organization who do not realize the role they are playing, others who would like to be noticed and taken into consideration in identifying the hidden conflict related issues, and those who sincerely do not want to be part of a productive team who need to be identified, so they can be replaced.

For two dozen years I have seen that the only thing that motivates the majority of organizations – moves them from tacit acquiescence of discomfort to an environment of total cooperation, is the money.

People must see the bottom line dollars and cents cost of the conflicts taking place before they will be willing to put up with the temporary discomfort of doing something about it.

Successful organization leaders understand that a key ingredient of success is the development and maintenance of shared goals for the future – shared by everyone in the organization. They also instinctively realize the stressful impact of workplace conflict, whether overt or covert, and appreciate how workplace conflict resolution strategies offer concrete savings to the individuals and the organization.