1. Leading through Conflict
Presented by:
Dr. Amy Wallis, Professor of Practice
Wake Forest University School of Business

2. “If the two of us agree on everything, then one of us is unnecessary.”
Anonymous

3. What causes conflict? Incompatible personalities/values
Unclear job boundaries
Competition for limited resources
Unreasonable rules or expectations
Dependence on one another to get work done
Inadequate communication
Extreme time pressure
Decision making styles
Adapted from Filley, 1975.

4. Three types of conflict
Task
Conflict
Process
Conflict
Relationship Conflict
Conflict over what task we are seeking to accomplish, the goal of the task, the purpose of our shared work.
Conflict over how we will accomplish our goal or complete the task, the process we will undertake.
Conflict over how we interact or feel about each other, which influences how we work together.
What?
How?
Who?

5. Some Tools for Your Toolbox

6. Styles of handling conflict
Competing
Collaborating
Assertive
Compromising
Assertiveness
Unassertive
Avoiding
Accommodating
Uncooperative
Cooperative
Cooperativeness

7. What you can do
Recognize your own style and when it works and doesn’t work for you
Adapt to fit the situation
Acknowledge others’ styles and that each style works under some circumstances
Help others use their styles to the benefit of the group or team
Ask questions to understand underlying motivations
Don’t assume that others behave in a certain way for the same reasons you would

8. Balancing advocacy and inquiry
High
Explaining
Asserting
Dictating
Dialoguing
Exploring
Politicking
ADVOCACY
Sensing
Bystanding
Withdrawing
Interviewing
Clarifying
Interrogating
Low
Low
INQUIRY
High
Adapted from The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge.

9. What you can do Seek opportunities to understand others’ reasoning
Ask questions that deepen your clarity on the other’s position
Identify shared goals and interests
Use these as a basis for decision-making
Determine your patterns of advocacy and inquiry in conflict, and adapt when needed

10. How to have a good fight Dimensions Substantive Conflict
Interpersonal Conflict
Focus on the Facts
More and current information is better
Hunches more than data; past information
Multiply the Alternatives
Generate multiple options; look for integrative solutions
One or two options; more distributive/zero-sum outcomes
Create Common Goals
Have superordinate goal(s)
Have competing goals
Use Humor
Enjoy and laugh with each other; create positive mood
Humorless, serious, no group social activities
Balance Power Structure
Create sense of fairness with members’ expertise being used
Autocratic and/or weak leadership encourages political jockeying
Seek Consensus with Qualification
Consensus decision when possible; leader decision when necessary
Forcing “false” consensus results in useless and frustrating debate
From “How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight”, HBR.

11. What you can do Use the “contact hypothesis” to support group cohesion
The more exposure groups have to one another, the less intergroup conflict they will experience
Build “programmed conflict” into your daily life
Create opportunities for task conflict and process conflict to occur
Brainstorming
Appointing a devil’s advocate

12. Questions? Comments? Concerns?