Project Management Tools and Techniques Blog

Introduction:

In project management, the terms “conflict management” and “resolution” refer to the methods and procedures used to recognize, address, and settle disputes that emerge among stakeholders or within a project team. Differing viewpoints, priorities, resources, objectives, and poor communication can all lead to conflicts. Maintaining project progress, team morale, and stakeholder satisfaction requires effective conflict management and resolution.

To understand conflict management, we should first have knowledge about the team performance domain. It’s a domain that addresses activities and functions associated with the people who are responsible for producing project deliverables that realize business outcomes. Effective execution of this performance domain results in the following desired outcomes:

• Shared ownership.
• A high-performing team.
• Applicable leadership and other interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated by all team members.

Among these outcomes, we will focus mainly on the applicable leadership and interpersonal skills and discuss conflict management and resolution.

Conflict Management:

We have to understand and access the conflicts to find the best solution possible.

6 strategies for applying this conflict management tool:

1. Confronting/Problem Solving: Dealing with problems by finding solutions is good when trust is there and the relationship matters.
2. Collaborating: Working together with different ideas to agree works best with time and trust, often led by project leaders.
3. Compromising: Meeting halfway when everyone can’t be completely happy and sharing to avoid making things worse, especially when power levels are similar
4. Smoothing or accommodating, making sure everyone gets along, being friendly even when there’s disagreement, especially when someone has more authority.
5. Forcing: Deciding things without everyone agreeing, usually by the person with more power, especially in emergencies like safety issues.
6. Withdrawal/avoiding: Stepping back from problems for a while, especially when things are too intense, and also when there’s no good way to win, like following rules you don’t like.

Conflict Resolution:

After addressing the conflicts and managing them, we have to find ways to resolve them to make the situation better and more normal. The following approaches can help resolve conflicts:

1. Keep communications open and respectful. In order to figure out the origin of the conflict, it’s crucial to maintain an atmosphere of safety because conflict may cause anxiety. Without a secure atmosphere, communication will become impossible. Make sure your body language, tone of voice, and words don’t come across as frightening.
2. Focus on the issues, not the people. Different perspectives on a situation are the primary cause of conflict. That need not be personal. Not putting the blame on others, but rather finding a solution, is the main priority.
3. .Focus on the present and future, not the past. Aim to keep your attention on the present rather than the past. Discussing the past won’t make the current situation better if something similar has happened before. The current situation may even become more intense as a result of it.
4. Search for alternatives together. By working together to find solutions and alternatives, one can repair the harm caused by conflict. More positive relationships may also result from it. As a result, the conflict becomes more of an environment for shared problem-solving and the creation of original solutions.

Illustrations on conflict management and resolution:

Team sports conflict and resolution:

We may have observed conflict during a game of football in our high school days. The two players on the same team tend to argue over who should take the next shot at the goal. This disagreement makes it hard for their team to work together effectively. The coach steps in and reminds them that they’re on the same team and need to support each other. They decide to communicate better and come up with a plan for passing the ball to each other to score goals as a team.

Conflict resolution in businesses:

In businesses, disagreements about scheduling and workload often occur between frontline staff members and their supervisor. This often leads to customer complaints and decreased productivity. To resolve this, the manager decides to have a meeting where the parties discuss their issues and decide on a new scheduling system. In order to address problems with service quality, customer feedback mechanisms are also put in place. As a result, customer satisfaction rises, conflicts are resolved, and employee trust is restored.

Here is the link to my blog video: MGMT 181-SEC 02-IA3-Pawan Sharma.mp4

References:

Project Management Institute. (2021). A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge 7^th Edition (pp-29, 168-169). Project Management Institute, Inc.

We know that in this competitive world, it is important to maintain a good profile and personal branding. With this aspect in mind, Fleming College, Peterborough, Ontario, has organized a workshop in this regard. We had the privilege of having Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) representative Ruston Haines (Rusty) lead a workshop at our college with the theme “RBC Future Launch: Your Brand Matters.” Through interesting discussions and useful activities, the workshop stated the importance of professional existence and personal branding. Here are three key lessons from the workshop that I think were important: 

• Understanding personal branding and realizing its strengths: The workshop was mainly about the idea of “brand,” which isn’t just for companies but also for people like us. We learned that our personal brand includes our values, skills, and what makes us unique. It’s about how we personally define ourselves and how others define us. We need to have a unique identity in our careers, just like how companies want to be different from each other. By thinking about ourselves and knowing who we are, we can figure out what makes us stand out and tell others about it. We’ve understood that personal branding can help us move forward in our careers. It’s not only about our education or experiences; it’s also about how we present ourselves to others. We learned from the workshop that we need to express a positive view of ourselves that aligns with our career goals. Everything we do online, whether it’s updating our LinkedIn profiles or using caution when posting on social media, affects how other people view us. By properly showcasing our strengths, we can gain more opportunities and develop lots of valuable relationships.
• Becoming an expert at the elevator pitch: We should know how to give a good elevator pitch, as it is extremely important when we’re trying to get a job or make new connections. It’s like a short speech where we can show what makes us special, not just a list of things we’re good at. We got better at giving elevator pitches by doing fun activities and getting feedback, so now we can talk confidently about ourselves in any professional situation. Being good at this helps us grab cool opportunities, like when we meet new people at events or talk to someone who might hire us.

• Building our network and advancing in our career on LinkedIn: In our workshop, we learned about LinkedIn, and it was really cool! We found out how to make our profiles look awesome so that people want to be friends with us or give us jobs. By adding lots of friends on LinkedIn, like classmates or people who work in the same field as us, we can get more chances to get cool jobs or work together. We also learned that if we share things we’re good at on LinkedIn, people might think we’re really smart at our jobs. Using LinkedIn to find jobs is like using a special tool to find the perfect job for us. We talked about being kind and polite when we chat with people on LinkedIn, which makes us look really professional. With all these new tricks, we’re ready to use LinkedIn to make our careers even better!

To wrap up, the RBC Future Launch workshop gave us really important ideas about personal branding and acting professionally in today’s tough job world. If we follow the advice about branding, making our personal brand strong, and getting good at the elevator pitch, we can start finding out more about ourselves and doing well in our careers. As we keep moving forward, we should keep in mind that how we show ourselves to others is super important—it’s not just about the things we do but also about how we show ourselves to the world, which can make a big impact.

Here is the link to the elevator pitch video:

https://ssfcollege-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/r/personal/pawshar_flemingcollege_ca/Documents/Elevator%20pitch%20video.mp4?csf=1&web=1&e=FSmJWC&nav=eyJyZWZlcnJhbEluZm8iOnsicmVmZXJyYWxBcHAiOiJTdHJlYW1XZWJBcHAiLCJyZWZlcnJhbFZpZXciOiJTaGFyZURpYWxvZy1MaW5rIiwicmVmZXJyYWxBcHBQbGF0Zm9ybSI6IldlYiIsInJlZmVycmFsTW9kZSI6InZpZXcifSwicGxheWJhY2tPcHRpb25zIjp7InN0YXJ0VGltZUluU2Vjb25kcyI6My40OX19

Link to my LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawan-sharma-aa86482b9?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BRyQNcNCPSgiSsOwsdQDcHw%3D%3D

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