The Crucial Significance of Conflict Management Training in the Workplace
No matter how big or small a company is, there are bound to be conflicts in its teams. Every person has differing views and ways they believe are best for handling workflow, clients, and executing projects.
When conflicts arise, addressing them and uniting the team as a cohesive unit is imperative. A conflict on the team can spread like a cancer and involve others by making the workplace tense. Some feel they need to choose sides, while others are impacted by the tensions that have arisen, even if they remain neutral.
Conflict management training is an essential strategic step for any organization. Managers may be capable of doing their jobs well, but they may not have the training to handle every type of conflict. Workplace disagreements are inevitable with so many differing minds coming together, but finding the right ways to handle them is imperative to continue forward on a path of innovation and productivity.
When conflicts go unresolved, they can cost companies massive sums of money, making the investment into conflict management training programs worth every cent. If you own a company, are an HR manager, or you run a department, the significance of implementing conflict management training in your workplace cannot be understated.
Understanding Conflicts That Unravel the Workplace
Conflicts can happen for a variety of reasons and they happen in every type of work setting you can imagine. Sometimes it’s a difference of goals while other times it’s personality clashes. Feelings of frustration start to arise, and before long, tensions may be noticeable by everyone in the company.
Conflict isn’t always a bad thing, but the way it is addressed must remain positive. Sometimes, interpersonal conflicts happen through misunderstandings or because one party feels disrespected. Other times, conflict is within a singular person who is struggling to conform. There are also group conflicts between teams and departments, and these can all make or break the workplace. The good thing about conflict is that it can bring changes that are desperately needed, calling for new solutions when things simply aren’t moving forward.
Conflict can appear in a variety of forms. For example, some conflicts simmer under the surface, slowly coming to a boil after a long time. This long-standing tension creates prolonged stress for all employees, even those not directly involved in the conflict. Other conflicts are like sudden car accidents that instantly catch everyone by surprise. When an explosive conflict occurs, it usually leads to distracting rumors that hinder productivity as everyone tries to speculate about what went down.
When conflict arises, the way to deal with it is to get in front of it. Working together to learn how to manage conflict is the key to continued growth for any business.
What Are the Drivers of Workplace Conflict?
In addition to understanding workplace conflict, spotting the signs that drive it is paramount. Conflicts often emerge when poor communication is rampant. This leads to misunderstandings, which create frustration and drag everyone down.
Equally as frustrating are situations that have role ambiguity, where employees are not given clear direction for what their responsibilities are. Eventually, as a team fumbles around, they step on one another’s toes and get upset with each other for stealing their projects. Even worse, certain tasks may be left unfulfilled as no one was given proper instructions to take them on.
When management and leadership are lacking or inconsistent, it may come across as biased while failing to resolve issues. There can be disagreements over staff, budgets, or even tools to get the job done, and when mixed with the varying types of personalities that are out there, it can cause serious conflict issues.
How Organizations Can Benefit from Conflict Management Training
In your business, you can either ignore problems and hope they’ll go away or face them head-on, but conflict in the workplace never just goes away on its own. Every business and team can greatly benefit from receiving this type of training.
Greater Productivity
Everyone needs to learn to work together for the greater good and the company’s productivity. When the team receives this training, it reduces the time they spend on disputes. Instead of fighting and making others uncomfortable, employees learn how to work together and refocus, which increases productivity.
Improved Employee Retention
No one wants to stay in a workplace where they feel others don’t treat them fairly or have no regard for their concerns. When you sign up the entire team to undergo conflict management training, they all learn effective strategies that they can use for years to come. Once they learn how to work together despite their differences, the mood shifts, and your employees will no longer wish to leave at the first chance they can get.
Better Innovation and Growth
Conflicts will also happen in the workplace, though healthy conflict management through training creates breakthroughs. When employees feel safe sharing their diverse perspectives, they experience increased engagement, leading to better decision-making, which ultimately impacts profitability for the better.
Reduced Legal and Financial Risks
Team leaders become empowered through training, which allows them to handle extremely sensitive situations. Conflict management training offers skills to help them handle harassment and discrimination claims professionally, minimizing the risk of lawsuits and the high costs associated with them.
How Employees Benefit from Conflict Management Training
While companies can bolster growth and create a positive work culture that helps retain top talent, employees will also gain more from this training. When your business chooses an effective program, it will allow employees to grow in several key competencies that bode well for their professional careers.
Active Listening
Very few people know how to engage in active listening, and it is one skill that is essential, both in and out of the workplace. Active listening involves paying full attention to what each person says. It is listening, not to prepare a rebuttal, but rather, to make the speaker feel understood. In learning this skill, employees will not only understand others better but also decipher non-verbal cues to keep situations from escalating.
Growing Emotional Intelligence
One of the problems that managers face is to manage their personal emotions in tandem with empathizing with others while de-escalating tensions in the office. These training workshops can help them learn to keep things balanced in their interactions.
Problem-Solving Skills
For many, looking at the symptoms of a problem at a surface level keeps them from seeing the root cause. By developing problem-solving skills, employees will be able to uncover the issue at the source. And, they can identify sustainable win-win solutions for the team.
Mediation and Negotiation Skills
In order to de-escalate conflicts effectively in the office, managers need to learn how to mediate as a neutral third party. By developing these skills, they will have fruitful negotiations and constructive conversations that bring everyone together rather than driving them further apart.
Benefits for Every Organization
With conflict management training, everyone on every level benefits at the company. Many employees who have worked their way up to management received training to perform their jobs, but very few of them received proper training on dealing with conflicts.
As a result, leaders and teams waste time attempting to wade through the issues. By having this training, leadership is better equipped to move the mode from one of avoidance to one of active engagement. When companies make this shift by implementing formal training, the culture shifts in a positive direction.
If problems are continuing to grow, facing them head-on with these modules will encourage healthy debate that improves the bigger picture. Companies are increasingly using these methods and reinforcing them in their day-to-day operations. As they do, they are driving greater success and building the kind of place people want to work.
Is Your Workplace a Conflict Zone?
While every organization can benefit from ongoing conflict management training, some may not even realize there are conflicts. How do you spot them?
Decreased Employee Productivity and High Worker Turnover
Employees who feel undervalued and unheard tend to disengage. They do the bare minimum, not out of laziness but out of frustration. The stress may be too much. And, without anyone in leadership helping to resolve the conflict, it sends them out the door. When your team’s productivity is low, you might find yourself having to train new hires after more employees leave. If so, it’s a huge sign that you need conflict management training.
Toxic Workplace
In addition to people leaving as quickly as they were hired, toxic workplace environments also cause conflict. There may be constant negative gossip and passive-aggressive behavior, and none of that creates an environment that breeds or retains top talent.
Active Avoidance
Employees who go out of their way to avoid one another when they need to work together on projects are another key indicator that your team needs this training. It’s high time you set up these training modules to have everyone come together and put your company back on the path to success.
