Conflict ladder

Abstract

One of the most important things in good management is good and clear communication, both when it comes to working in a team and if you are working as a consultant and your relationship with a client. Good communication is important within all types of management - project, program and portfolio. Basically, every time more than one person is working together in solving a problem, and no matter if you are a leader, manager or coworker.

A good way to start having good communication is to avoid bigger conflicts and misunderstandings. Conflicts can occur for many reasons, if not on behalf of unclear goals or misunderstandings, then it often comes from differentiations within perceptions, values and backgrounds . To help control conflicts The Conflict Ladder is a good tool to use.

Conflict in itself is not a bad thing but escalating conflicts are bad. Actually, if all members of a team always agree, then the work can be unnuanced and going in a wrong direction – so conflicts are good when being controlled . But what is a conflict exactly and what does it mean when a conflict is escalating, and how can it be avoided? This will be described in this article together with the principles of The Conflict Ladder. The Conflict Ladder describes the different stages that exist if a conflict is allowed to escalate fully with anger, blame and personal attack, and the aim is to keep the conflict at lowest possible stage. To keep the conflict at the same stage or to get it to lower stages, there are some tools to manage the conflict.

Not all persons react with anger to a conflict, some will try to avoid the conflict, and here The Conflict Avoidance Ladder will describe the different stages of the conflict. Here the tools to solve the conflict will be different .

Different examples of conflicts at different stages and managing tool to use in different relations will be illustrated, so it will be easier for you to incorporate The Conflict Ladder in not only your daily work life but also your personal life.

The big idea

When talking about managing, no matter if it is project, program or portfolio management, good communication is the key. In every type of managing information have to be gathered from different actors, agreements have to be made between parts, a solution have to be researched and analyzed by a various of team members. Every time two individuals have to communicate different parameters can cause a conflict - here the challenge lies in keeping it as a good conflict with a useful outcome for both sides. If the conflict escalates drastic it can have large consequences for the harmony in a team. To keep conflicts at a compatible level sometimes requires clever managing.

What is a conflict?

To know how to keep a good conflict it is essential to know exact what a conflict is. There are many formulations and definitions of what a conflict is. In the DS Handbook 185:2007 it is defined as: “An interactive process manifested in incompatibility, disagreement or dissonance within or between social entities.” When trying to straighten out a conflict it is crucial to know the context and what it is about. When it comes to working in a team there are five main types of conflict contexts: methods, resources, values, personal and system. These are described by The Sector of Working Environment (BFA) as following :

Method conflicts: “Is about goals, means, structure and procedures. Professional questions about how the work is carried out and what methods are used to solve the task.”

Resource conflicts: “Emerging from competition for money, time, space, materials and staff.”

Value conflicts: “Is about culture and about personal values and attitudes. What is right and what is wrong? Moral and ethical disagreements, traditions, etc. Here, conflicts can arise between different professional groups, and in cultural clashes between, for example, new and experienced employees.”

Personal conflicts: “Is about identity, self-esteem, loyalty, trust and rejection.” “Here, deep and unconscious feelings are activated, which are about friendship, sympathy and care, which can be difficult to deal with in a workplace, but are crucial for how the individual employee or manager experiences his or her work situation.”

System conflicts: “Is about allocating rights, responsibilities and obligations. The system conflicts arise from the contradictions that arise between employees and managers when legislation, party agreements and professional practices are established in general.”

More than one of these types of conflicts can occur in one conflict, so it is important to detangle a conflict and find a solution to all parts of the conflict. To find a solution to a conflict it is important that the involved parts in the conflict are able to keep the good communication and keep the conflict from escalating. Here The Conflict Ladder is a great tool to understand the different stages in a conflict and to know how to avoid taking the conflict a step up.

The Conflict Ladder

The Conflict Ladder consists of

Illustration of The Conflict Ladder inspired by the illustration made by BFA

The steps

Step 1 - Disagreement

Step 2 - Blame

Step 3 - The problem grows

Step 4 - The dialogue disappears

Step 5 - Enemy images

Step 6 - Hostility

Step 7 - Polarization

Conflict management tools

The Conflict Avoidance Ladder

The steps

Step 1 - Disagreement

Step 2 - Mental images

Step 3 - Avoidance

Step 4 - Slander

Step 5 - Separation

Conflict management tools

Annotated bibliography

The Conflict Ladder - How to prevent and manage conflicts, BFA Handel, 2020 . This leaflet is produced by the industry community of working environment within trade, finance and offices to improve the customer contact in the industry. It is like a handbook where The Conflict Ladder and The Conflict Avoidance Ladder is discribed, and different tools to use.

Arts in Psychotherapy - Unlocking conflict through creative expression .

PMBOK Guide - A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge .

Five types of conflicts .