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members whose desks were so buried in papers and books and other items that you

couldn’t see the desktop. And of course, we’ve seen the opposite as well—those team
members without a speck of paper on the desk, only the telephone and a computer
monitor. Some team members are early birds and show up for work before the sun is
up but are tired and cranky by 4 p.m., while others do their best work in the afternoon
and early evening hours. There are hundreds of ways that work styles can vary and

cause conflicts on the team. You should be aware of the preferences of your team
members and accommodate reasonable solutions whenever possible.

Constraints are another area that can cause conflict on a project. Change requests,
scope creep, and stakeholders are just a few examples of constraints that may drive
incompatible goals.

Another common cause of conflict is communication issues. Perhaps team members
don’t understand the goals of the project, or maybe they lack solid interpersonal skills
and are not adept at communicating their needs or issues. Sometimes team members

don’t communicate well with each other and deadlines are missed or tasks don’t meet
quality standards. Communication is such an important issue in project management
I’ve dedicated a whole chapter to the topic. I’ll talk more about communication in
Chapter 8.

There are several techniques you can use to address and ideally resolve conflict among
team members. You’ll look at them next.

Managing Conflict

One of the most important concepts I can share with you that I’ve learned during my
career managing hundreds of projects and personnel is that conflict will not go away
on its own. You can’t wish it away and hope for the best. Unfortunately, ignoring
conflict will not make it go away either. I tried that tactic once or twice early in my
career and it was a resounding failure. You need to address conflict head-on before it
grows and gets out of hand.

This is such an important concept that I’m going to say it again. As soon
as you are alerted that conflict is lurking among the team, even if you simply
suspect there is conflict (listen to your gut on this), deal with it immediately.
Conflict is like a cancer and will grow and fester out of control without
intervention.

According to CompTIA, there are several ways to detect and resolve conflict. You’ll look

at each technique next.
Smoothing Smoothing is a temporary way to resolve conflict. In this technique, the

areas of agreement are emphasized over the areas of difference, so the real issue stays
buried. This technique does not lead to a permanent solution. Smoothing can also

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