This week's article comes from my fellow LinkedIn Learning author Natasha Kasimtseva.
Projects are the vehicle of change, and a key project manager competency is leading the team through rough waters of learning and evolving. Resource constraints, competing priorities and requirements, differences of opinion - these are a few examples of the sources of conflict that can impede project delivery. So how do we reconcile differences and resolve conflicts on a project??
- Recognize that conflict is not always a bad thing. Conflict can be an opportunity to enhance clarity and alignment. Say your team is resource-constrained and your key stakeholders disagree on which features to build first. This can be a great opportunity to go back to the drawing board and evaluate and rank features to make sure the ones with the most business value get implemented first.?
- Pay extra attention to communication. Building lines of communication becomes more critical in the era of remote work. Information exchange that used to happen organically (“water-cooler” conversations, team lunches, informal touch-points) now have to be engineered using communication technology. Invite your team members to have coffee over Zoom or schedule an informal touch-point using MS Teams.?
- Keep the project team on the same page. A Single Source of Truth for the team to lean on is a great way to reduce confusion and potential conflict. Project management software with real time reporting can be a great investment. Tools like JIRA and SharePoint can provide virtual space where the team members can retrieve necessary information to stay informed.?
- Try short interactive meetings rather than lengthy project debriefs. More interactive methods like SCRUMS and STAND-UPs resolve misunderstanding between technical and business teams.?Shorter, more frequent meetings provide teams an open forum to remove roadblocks and collaborate.?
- Focus on belonging and inclusion to create trust and respect within the team. As project managers, we often work with multi-disciplinary teams and have to be aware of different layers of diversity, including organizational and cultural. Aligning your team around common project goals and team values will build a stronger synergy and break up the silos.?
If you would like to learn more about managing project stakeholders and conflict resolution, check out these LinkedIn courses:
Projects Director, Microsoft EPM & SharePoint at Project Solution Ltd
3 年Thank you for sharing, Bonnie.
Project Management | Professional Scrum Master? | DevOps | Software Test Analyst | Cloud Computing
3 年thanks, Bonnie and Natasha, very insightful
CFA, PMP, MSc
3 年Nice summary. On the new PMP exam guidelines under the People, Domain Task 1 is Manage Conflict. I thought that was interesting that PMI put that as the first task. Conflict has always been part of project management and nice to see that it is now getting more up front attention.
Thanks Bonnie and Natasha...I've always disliked the word "conflict" when talking about situations like you share here, though it is the most common descriptor so using it makes sense. Maybe we can start a trend by referring to it as "idea rumbles?"
Team Supporter. Strategy Enabler. Project Manager. Educator.
3 年Thank you Bonnie! I really enjoy your newsletter and I was honored to contribute to one!! All - if you have not subscribed to Bonnie's Project Pointers - please do so! It's great resource and inspiration!