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viewpoint and confirm that you respect his or her opinion and need his
or her cooperation to solve the problem. Listen with empathy and see
the conflict from the other person's point of view. In other words, try to
understand the other party’s motivations and goals, and see how your

actions may be affecting these.

It is useful also to prepare evidence of specific ways that another
individual’s behavior has disrupted the effectiveness of the team or
organization. This means trying to understand the conflict in objective
terms, such as:

• Is it affecting work performance?
• Is it damaging client or customer service?
• Is it disrupting team work?
• Is it hampering decision-making?

• And so on.

In this process it is important to focus on work issues and leave
personalities out of the discussion.

• Identify issues clearly and concisely.
• Remain flexible.

• Clarify feelings and emotions that are occurring in this conflict.

Step Three: Agree on the Problem

This sounds like an obvious step, but often different underlying needs,
interests, and goals can cause people to perceive problems very differently.
It is important to agree on the problems that you are trying to solve before
it is possible to find a mutually acceptable solution. These conflict issues
need to be identified clearly and concisely. This clarification can often be

facilitated by identifying the root cause or causes of any problems that
need to be addressed to resolve the conflict.

Sometimes different people will see different but interrelated problems. If
you can't reach a common perception of the problem, then at the very least

David Kolzow 161