Creating Win-Win Solutions for Team Conflicts

Journal for Quality and Participation, The, Fall 2006 by Gitlow, Howard, McNary, Lisa

By redefining team members' aims and belief systems, conflicts can be resolved in a way that works for everyone. The six-step process described here can help teams find solutions that maximize mutual benefits.

Conflicts among team members frequently result in "win-lose" decisions. This is unfortunate because it is possible for many of these team conflicts to be resolved with "win-win" decisions. The trick to moving from conflicts resulting in "win-lose" solutions to conflicts resulting in "win-win" solutions is reframing the conflict and/or changing the assumptions underlying the resolution of the conflicts.1

Win-Lose Solutions to Team Conflicts

Win-lose scenarios utilize domination or appeasement as the primary behaviors for resolution of team conflicts. These behaviors occur when the conflicting team members perceive an "economics of scarcity,"2 creating two conflict resolution styles: the avoidant style and the sharing style. The avoidant style, characterized by neglectful behavior, represents a stalemate or even a situation that cannot be resolved. The sharing style, which uses compromise as its primary behavior, represents a "zero sum" situation that allows for some degree of satisfaction to both parties; however, any gain in satisfaction (and thus, decreased frustration) on the part of one party is due to a loss of satisfaction (and thus, increased frustration) of the other party.3

A third style of behavior for conflict resolution is the collaborative style. It represents a "varying-sum" situation in which both parties may gain if the conflict is not phrased in an "either or" manner; however, this collaborative style is difficult to achieve because both parties have to be satisfied completely with the resolution of the conflict. Any departure from the collaborative style represents movement toward the avoidant or sharing styles of behavior.4

Win-Win Solutions to Team Conflicts

The win-win style of conflict resolution behavior requires a fourth style of behavior in which team members cooperate fully and participate actively to satisfy their team concerns with mutually beneficial outcomes.2 Table 1 compares win-lose behavior and win-win behavior.

Successful win-win behavior requires a different approach to conflict management, including re-patterning of entrenched habits, a positive outlook, constructive motivations, honest sharing of information, and trust. Further, for win-win conflict management to be effective, two elements must exist prior to the effort; team members must have a "vested interest in the outcome," and they must believe that a solution can be developed that "represents their convictions."2

The six-step process for promoting win-win solutions to team conflicts2 is described below:

* Define the problem(s) orissue(s). As a combined group, the "facts" of the situation that divide the team members are explored jointly, rather than individually.

* Review the problem(s) or issue(s). The team reviews the work completed in the first step and concludes any additional fact finding to reach a final definition of the conflict.

* Develop and debate a range of alternatives. To fully insure that each team member's "frame of reference" is understood by the other group members, possible alternatives that address the problem(s) or issue(s) identified in the previous step are developed as a combined group.

* Search for solutions. The full group then explores the solutions that seem most viable. This does not involve ranking the solutions but rather constructing effective solutions that have the best chance of being chosen.

* Explore and evaluate the solutions. Team members evaluate all the solutions with the opportunity to alter or add new solutions.

* Weigh and choose the best alternative solution. Team members rank order the solutions with a thorough review and discussion. From the rankings, the best solution for all team members is chosen.

It should be noted that the win-win style should not be equated with the absence of conflict. Frequently, win-win solutions are not completely harmonious.

A Model for Win-Win Conflict Resolution

The purpose of this article is to decrease the difficulty in achieving win-win solutions for conflict episodes among team members when using the above six-step process. It is possible to increase the likelihood of win-win solutions by getting team members to shift their aim and/or belief system.

People use their beliefs to define a problem and develop a range of alternative solutions to a conflict episode. The model presented here is based on four beliefs that encourage win-win solutions to conflict episodes. These beliefs are examined because they form the core assumptions of Deming's theory of management called the "System of Profound Knowledge."5 "A user of the model presented in this article could evaluate any belief to create a win-win solution to a conflict episode; however, the ideas described below have demonstrated success in many situations:

* Improve the process to get results. Manage by improving processes to get results (process and results management); do not manage just to get results (results-only management). Process and results management promotes improvement and innovation of organizational processes. Highly capable processes facilitate prediction of the near future, and consequently, a higher likelihood of achieving desired results. Results-only management causes people to abuse processes to get their desired results, and ultimately, things get worse.