How to Understand the Sources of Conflict

If you look on the web, you’ll find there are only three sources of conflict…
or maybe it’s five…
or eight…

The truth is - as anyone who has lived any length of time knows – that there are as many causes of conflict as combinations of people. That’s to say, nearly an infinite number!

But we can group them together and give examples, to better understand how conflict arises.
And, in the world of projects, I am going to start with two big groupings:
1. Pragmatics and
2. Politics

And I will split each into two.
Under Pragmatics, we have conflict relating to:
• The tasks we need to do
• The processes we follow
Then, I’ll split Politics into:
• The intimate politics of relationships
• The macro politics of our environments

Task-related Sources of Conflict
1. Allocation of tasks
2. Skills and capabilities
3. Overlaps and interdependencies between tasks
4. Standards to which the tasks will be held

Process-related Sources of Conflict
1. Choice of method
2. Information: missing, incorrect, ambiguous, partial, conflicting
3. Governance and oversight – along with penalties and rewards
4. Jurisdiction and legitimacy
Already we are straying towards politics!

Relationship-related Sources of Conflict
1. Identities – this is about personality, perception, and approach
2. Values – this is about styles, priorities, goals – what is important to us
3. Status – differences in status and the pressures they create
4. Communication – all this wouldn’t be so bad if we could communicate without misunderstandings arising from the way we all have our own ways to communicate and we all interpret the world within our own unique frames of reference – there’s a whole video in there!

Environment-related Sources of Conflict
1. Culture
2. Conditions
3. Resources – availability, access, and competing demands: assets, materials, money, people
4. Rules and policies

I have a video program: 'Dealing with Conflict in Projects'
Learn more about the course and get a 30% discount with this link:
https://bit.ly/ConflictYouTube30off

Here are the main topics you'll cover:
• The sources of conflict
• How to listen
• The effect of personalities on conflict
• The ways people resist imposed ideas
• The signs and stages of conflict escalation
• The steps for de-escalating conflict
• Strategies for resolving conflict
• Five ways to handle conflict
• How to recover a broken (workplace) relationship


Recommended Videos
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A while back, I asked Project Managers in a couple of forums what material things you need to have, to do your job as a Project Manager. They responded magnificently. I compiled their answers into a Kit list.
https://kit.co/MikeClayton/what-a-pro...
Note that the links are affiliated.

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