myAIPMHow to work with someone who creates unnecessary conflict
Ripley, A. | Harvard Business Review
Conflict can be good for an organisation, it can push us to be better, work harder, strive for a workplace community, but sometime, conflict can become malignant. Some people can work to inflame conflict for their own end, Ripley found that these people commonly work in places such as hospitals, universities, political or advocacy organisations. People who inflame conflict also have a way of recruiting others to their cause, they tell persuasive stories about how they have been wronged by a co-worker, initiating undermining behaviour towards one another until the problem metastasizes. Ripley (2021) advises on the following steps to manage a person who creates conflict:
- Ask a lot of questions, with genuine curiosity, in any disagreement.
- Reflect on what you hear and check to see if you got it right.
- Find a trusted mediator who can facilitate harder conversations.
- Reward and demonstrate good conflict behaviour publicly as often as possible.
- Target problems not people.
Make the goal to achieve ‘good conflict’, don’t aim for no conflict.
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How to work with someone who creates unnecessary conflict, Ripley, A., Harvard Business Review, 2021