What do you do if stakeholders have conflicting needs during conflict resolution?

Acknowledge their concerns: Could you show stakeholders you hear them? Dig for the root cause: Understand why their needs clash. Prioritize cleverly: Not all needs are equal. Strategize! Brainstorm together: Work as a team to craft solutions. Compromise is king: Find common ground, even if it means bending a bit. Remember the goal: Focus on what unites everyone: project success!

First, ensure you fully understand each stakeholder's perspective and priorities. Listen actively without judgment and rephrase their viewpoints to ensure you've captured them accurately. Conflicting needs often arise from underlying interests that may not be immediately obvious.

Understanding and clearly articulating where each stakeholder is coming from and how that is valuable for the success of the program is the first step to setting the stage for a productive and engaging discussion.

Prioritise and make trade-offs …If some needs prove incompatible, you may have to get the stakeholders to prioritize which are most critical versus which they may potentially be willing to concede on.

In facilitation you have to move beyond mere dialogue and also go beyond what I'd call 'empathetic strategising'. You've got to read between the lines and understand not just the spoken concerns, but the unspoken ones; fears, aspirations and challenges. This allows us to get a proper viewpoint of our stakeholders. If we place ourselves in other people's shoes, we gain insights that are often missed in a conventional dialogue. So my 3 key suggestions: be empathetic, provide clarity, aim for alignment between diverse needs and the overarching goals of the stakeholders. If we can do this, everything else can fall into its place.

When stakeholders have conflicting needs during conflict resolution, my approach focuses on finding a balanced outcome. I start by actively listening to all parties. Understanding the underlying interests behind their positions allows me to identify common ground or potential compromises. I aim to facilitate discussions that encourage empathy and mutual respect, often employing techniques such as brainstorming or "what if" scenarios to explore alternative solutions. My goal is to achieve a resolution that, while it may not fully satisfy everyone's initial demands, represents a fair and sustainable compromise. This process requires patience, open-mindedness, and a commitment to maintaining positive relationships beyond the conflict.

Build Trust: Focus on building trust among stakeholders by demonstrating integrity, transparency, and consistency in your actions. Trust can help facilitate constructive dialogue and collaboration. Seek Common Goals: Look for common goals or interests among stakeholders and use them as a basis for finding mutually beneficial solutions. Emphasize the shared purpose that brings stakeholders together. Use Mediation or Facilitation: Consider using a neutral third party to facilitate the conflict resolution process. A mediator or facilitator can help guide discussions, manage emotions, and ensure that all stakeholders have an opportunity to be heard.

Encourage Compromise: Encourage stakeholders to be open to compromise and to consider the needs and perspectives of others. Emphasize the importance of finding a solution that is acceptable to all parties, even if it requires some degree of give-and-take. Focus on the Future: Instead of dwelling on past conflicts or assigning blame, focus on finding solutions that will prevent future conflicts and promote positive working relationships among stakeholders. Seek Continuous Improvement: Use conflicts as an opportunity for learning and growth. Encourage stakeholders to reflect on the conflict resolution process and identify ways to improve communication, collaboration, and decision-making in the future.

Conflict management and resolution is sure a great skill, and all of the points said above would help. However, in my view, all that looks to be a conflict is not necessarily one in real life. Some stakeholders would be jeopardising the progran without a genuine intention of adding value and no specific outcome that benefits the program. Identifying them and filtering out the noise is a greater skill, and needs tactics and knack. Every program manager needs to have this skill to manage the programs without unnecessarily wasting organizational resources.

Sometimes, a perfect solution isn't achievable. Compromise, when done strategically, can be a powerful tool. You may propose a slightly delayed milestone for Stakeholder A in exchange for more flexibility in B's technical specifications.

Stay flexible- Even after an initial resolution, conflicts may re-emerge over time. Be prepared to re-evaluate agreements and maintain open communication channels with stakeholders.