How to Resolve Conflict on Projects

How to Resolve Conflict on ProjectsHow to Resolve Conflict on ProjectsConflict on projects is totally normal. You should expect people to disagree. Were all different, and its the differences that make our teams highly performant. The discussions that happen when people disagree can result in some incredibly creative and inspiring solutions to issues. Disputes help people unpick the real problems and dig down to the root of what is going on as they try to frame their own partal arguments. In other words, lets not start by thinking we should shy away from conflict. It can be highly beneficial in certain circumstances, but it does need to be actively managed. Disputes can destroy teams when theyre left to fester. These tips explain conflict management and how you can actively help parties who differ to reach a position of mutual understanding, even if you acknowledge that theyll never really agree. What Is Conflict Management? Lets start with some definitions. Managing conflict in the workplace is something we all do, whether were consciously aware of it. Conflict happens when two or more individuals (or groups) have different objectives, attitudes or opinions about the same thing. Conflict management is the term we give to how we deal with that. Its what we do to identify the problem, to uncover the differences, and work out how we can address whats going on. Many conflicts can be resolved with discussion, particularly if the needs and goals of the project or business are considered, but sometimes other factors are involved. Why Do We Need Conflict Management? In many workplace environments today, and on many project teams, the setup is that of a matrix structure. Thismeans that the people on the team dont directly work for you. This can be the perfect situation in many ways you manage their tasks but you dont have to deal with all the other human resources stuff like salaries, benefits, vacation time and so on. That gives you more time to focus on movin g your project along to its ultimate goal. Having said that, matrix structures are rife with conflicts of loyalty, time, priority, or team. Knowing how to unpick all unterstellung is a helpful skill. Project management is a job that causes conflict We go looking for what hasnt been done, chasing people and picking through their mistakes.We direct the work of people who report to others.We chase down answers and decisions, and this often involves escalating issues that could make others look bad to yourproject sponsor. The bottom line is that if you dont know how to resolve conflict at work,your team will suffer from more conflict than is healthy. Debates wont be moderated. Factions arise. Conflicts stop tasks from being completed when arguments arent resolved. Dealing withdifficult stakeholders becomes your day job. If you dont resolve problems, it ultimately affects your ability to deliver on your objectives. In the worst case, it can mean that your best people resign and that your team totally implodes. Many conflicts require only that you sit down and facilitate a conversation between people with different opinions. At other times, you might have to recognize when conflict is going to have a major impact on the project and act accordingly, perhaps raising the issue with your project board. Conflict Resolution in the Workplace The Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument (TKI) is a way of working out your preferred style for handling conflict in any situation, not just at work. Its often used in workplace settings. As a tool, its really useful for understanding what options are available to you when you have an issue that must be dealt with. The TKI is a questionnaire that asks how you naturally react when youre faced with a situation where the opinions or concerns of two people dont align. It helps you describe your own reaction and response when you come up against someone who doesnt share your outlook. Assertiveness and Cooperativeness The TKI look s at two different aspects of your approach to managing conflict Assertiveness How far do you take your own concerns at the expense of others?Cooperativeness How far do you go to satisfy the other persons concerns? These are two important areas of consideration. You have to understand how far youre prepared to go to protect and win your own position, and how much it matters to you to help the other person achieve what he wants. Ask your HR team if they have access to the Thomas-Kilmann assessment so you can take it. Find out your own personal style. After youve identified your style, you can think about the next part of the TKI the five different modes for responding to conflict CompetingAccommodatingAvoidingCollaboratingCompromising The Competing Conflict Mode The competing mode is sometimes also called forcing. Its a very assertive style which is also uncooperative. Its exactly what you would expect You impose your opinion on the other person. He loses. Competing is really onl y something you can do when you have some kind of legitimate power in the situation Youre in a management role and are more senior than the other person.You control something in the situation, such as the budget or resource.You have expert knowledge of the situation that the other person doesnt share. Consider health and safety issues where you have to force the wearing of safety equipment even if someone on the team doesnt want to comply. Conflict entschlieung techniques in this mode would involve Telling someone else what to do.Issuing a mandate or directive. Rather than resolving the conflict, youve squashed it and enabled the project to move forward. You have a decision, but youve probably lost some friends by doing it. Use it with caution or when the situation really requires it for legal or safety reasons. Never descend into bullying at work. The Accommodating Conflict Mode Accommodating is the opposite of competing. Its unassertive and cooperative in that your interests a re overlooked and you abide by the will of the other person. You shouldnt always see this as losing or being self-sacrificing. Sometimes arguments arent worth your time or interest. Watch out if you use this too often, however, because might see you as too soft if you capitulate too frequently. The Avoiding Conflict Mode This is where you dont engage in conflict at all. Its unassertive because you arent taking part in the discussion, and its uncooperative because youre not helping the other person either. In fact, youre doing nothing. This might sound terrible, but it can actually be effective when used in moderation and under the right circumstances. You havent actually managed the problem, just the initial manifestation of the conflict. You must still find time to address the issues. Theres a risk that the problem will get bigger and bigger if you wait too long. Imagine that two colleagues are arguing loudly and its disturbing the work of other people in the office. You interv ene and tell them that youll help them come to a entscheidung when theyve both calmed down. You offer one of them the chance to cool off in your office until that time. Conflict resolution techniques in this mode Postponethe discussion until a better time or situation.Move away from a threatening situation. The Collaborating Conflict Mode Collaborating is an assertive way of resolving problems and its highly cooperative. You dont avoid the conflict - you dive straight in, working together to unpick the issues and to get to a point where both your requirements are met. Approaching the situation in a really pragmatic way can help build trust with your team. Lets say that absatzwirtschaft wants the product to launch in March. IT wants a new starter to join the team before they begin work on the product launch. They go over the Gantt charttogether and use scheduling techniques to ensure that the new starter can fully be part of the team and still get the product launched on time. C onflict resolution techniques in this mode include discussion and mediation. The Compromising Conflict Mode Compromising is moderately assertive and moderately cooperative. Its a halfway position thats commonly used, and of course, youve compromised on situations in the past. You dont get exactly what you want, and neither does the other person. Instead, you come to an amicable solution that you can both agree on. The team says that the Agile sprint should be two weeks long. You want it to be four weeks. You compromise and agree that sprints will be three weeks. Conflict resolution techniques in this mode include DiscussionNegotiatingExchanging concessions - you both give something up Whats Your Conflict Resolution Style? The great thing about understanding where you sit on the TKI is that you understand your preference for resolving conflict in the workplace - and in other places, too. This gives you a head start in identifying what might be the best approach to use for t he particular situation you find yourself in. You have a personal preference, but youre not stuck responding the same way in all situations. Walking away might be the most appropriate course of action in some cases, so youll choose to avoid it. In others, a compromise might be the fastest way to an acceptable path around the impasse. You might choose to use other techniques at other times. The most important thing to remember is that workplace conflict is going to happen, so having a few techniques to draw on gives you options when youre faced with a difficult situation. Knowing your options gives you confidence and that can help you sort out disputes so everyone can get back to work.

Special Journal Issue to Explore Uncertainty Management in Com...

Special Journal Issue to Explore Uncertainty Management in Com... Special Journal Issue to Explore Uncertainty Management in Com... Special Journal Issue to Explore Uncertainty Management in Complex Multiphysics Structural DynamicsManuscripts are now being accepted for a special issue of the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B Mechanical Engineering, that will focus on uncertainty management in complex multiphysics structural dynamics. The deadline for authors to submit a paper for the special issue, which is scheduled to be published before the end of the year, is April 30, 2019.Non-deterministic modeling approaches, which enable the characterization, propagation and quantification of uncertainties in both operational experiments and numerical analyses, have helped advance computer-aided engineerings accuracy and robustness in structural dynamics applications. However, challenges have developed in aerospace, automobile and other mechanical indust ries where large-scale and multiphysics systems such as vibroacoustics, thermoelastics and fluid-solid coupled systems are designed and employed with very large design spaces, disparate parameter sensitivities, multifarious sources of uncertainties and high calculation burden. Further development of current techniques for uncertainty management is clearly necessary in order to ensure the reliability of computational simulations in complex structural dynamics and multiphysics coupling mechanics.This special issue of the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B Mechanical Engineering, is intended to provide a setting for leading experts, researchers, academics and practicing engineers working in the interdisciplinary area of uncertainty analysis and non-deterministic modelling to present the latest developments in the field.Topics to be covered in the special issue will include verification and validation (VV) of numerical models for mechanical system s uncertainty characterization, propagation and quantification techniques modeling of coupling mechanisms between multiple media nonsymmetrical experimental modal analysis of coupling systems decoupling of vibroacoustics, thermoelasticity and fluid-solid coupling stochastic finite element analysis of complex mechanical systems stochastic model calibration and validation Bayesian model calibration and advanced Monte Carlo simulation sensitivity analysis of uncertain parameters robust model calibration and interval and fuzzy model calibration techniques.The guest editors of this special issue of the journal are Sifeng Bi, Leibniz University Hannover (Germany), sifeng.biirz.uni-hannover.de Michael Beer, Leibniz University Hannover (Germany), University of Liverpool (UK), Tongji University (China), beerirz.uni-hannover.de Morvan Ouisse, FEMTO-ST Institute (France), morvan.ouissefemto-st.fr and Scott Cogan, FEMTO-ST Institute (France), scott.coganuniv-fcomte.fr.Authors should prepare the ir manuscripts following the ASME guidelines for journal publication at https//journaltool.asme.org/home/AuthorResources.cfm. When submitting your paper through the ASME Journals Connect site, please select special issue SI032B, and then assign the paper type as Research Paper. Please alert the guest editors prior to the formal submission of your manuscript. Early submission is strongly encouraged to promote early peer-review and publication of the special issue.For more information on the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B Mechanical Engineering, visit http//risk.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/journal.aspx?journalid=170. To learn more about the ASME Journal Program, visit https//journaltool.asme.org.

Richard Branson on flex policies, what Virgin looks for in an employee, and lessons learned

Richard Branson on flex policies, what Virgin looks for in an employee, and lessons learnedRichard Branson on flex policies, what Virgin looks for in an employee, and lessons learnedEntrepreneur Richard Branson gave a keynote presentationthis week at the Adobe Summit, a digital marketing conference, in which he made a serious case for why Americans need more vacation time, what makes an ideal Virgin employee and other career advice.The self-made billionaire mogul and founder of investment and marketing company Virgin Group reportedly has stakes in more than 400 companies in 34 countries across a variety of industries. Here are a few takeaways from his address.On Virgins flexible policiesYou know, we also have some things which I think, that we do at Virgin which most companies dont do, and which I would really recommend they did. So, well give people unlimited paid leave. So somebody wants to go off for a month and travel the world, they can do it. They dont have to ask permission, B ranson said.But theyll work that much harder when they get back, and the company has not suffered from introducing this. If somebody wants to work from home, they can. If somebody wants to work from home on Fridays and Mondays, they can - and actually, they get more work done without having all the time of commuting to and from the office by doing that, he added. So, I think treating people with flexibility, treating people as humans, treating people as youd treat yur own children, comes back to the company many times over.On advice he recently gave to someoneBranson mentions that a few nights before the presentation, he met a father at the bar who was trying to figure out what to do in life. The mogul asked him if he had kids. He said he had two, is married, and part of a very happy family. Branson said he could sense that the man was considering leaving his job and that the man probably thought he would recommend that he go the entrepreneurial route.While Branson said that if the man has a concept that would improve the lives of others, he should pursue it, but he continued, What I actually said to him was Do you enjoy the people you work with at work? And he said yes, he really loved those people. Do you enjoy your work? Yes. But, what I did say to him was Go to your company anfhrer and try and get them to change some of the policies to give you a bit more flexibility so you dont feel restricted to two or three weeks, holidays a year, which I think this American, really-short holiday system is cruel.Branson added Its not a good way of fathers spending time with their children, mothers spending time with their children, and its not good for the business. You know, just because somebodys sitting at the desk all day long does not mean theyre working all day long. People can work in three or four days and most likely can get all their work done. So, more flexibility - they will be much more treu ergeben and they wont be necessarily asking the question, shou ld I leave this company and go do something else? On what Virgin looks forThe most important attribute to a person, whether theyre running other people, or whether theyre being run by other people is to be wonderful at basic things like kindness. Basic things like looking for the best in other people. Basic things like listening all the time, not just hearing yourself speak, Branson said.So, if you are in a position of power in a company, and somebody says, You know, theres a problem at home or something, immediately tell them, Take a couple of weeks off, you know, go sort it out and get your priorities and life right. So, thats the kind of people we look for, he added.On the importance of attention to detail and listeningAfter mentioning the ways Virgin changed the airline industry, Branson explained what he does to continue moving forward.When making experiences, attention to detail matters. To this day, I keep a notebook in my pocket whenever I board a flight. I get out and I li sten to passengers, I listen to cabin staff, and I write unterstellung thoughts and experiences down, and then action them the next day because these thoughts and experiences are invaluable, and they help us keep air travel fun, friendly and entertaining, Branson said.Frequently taking note of these seemingly little things has become one of the keys to our success. As expectations change, experiences must evolve too. So, as a leader, or really, whatever you were doing in life, always be a good listener, he advised. Always strive to create a different and better experience than anyone else. Never rest on your laurels.We try to live on these principles in every single business we run in our airlines, in our hotels, in our trains, in our gyms, and so on.On what you can learn from lifes experiencesWhat holds true in business and advocacy, has also been true in my personal life. And I think the most important lessons Ive learned that havent come from the books Ive read, that havent come from the formulas Ive memorized, that havent come what I call No. They have come from what I call the school of life. And the school of life is definitely the best experience there is, Branson said.