- Project environments can be stressful places and sometimes communication just breaks down. As a project manager, you need to be able to deal with these kinds of situations sensitively. That's where conflict resolution comes in. In this video, we'll go through some of the common sources of conflict in a project and how to resolve conflict when it happens. The first thing I want to mention is that while conflict can be stressful, it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Conflict that is well resolved can actually lead to innovations and new ways of working that benefit everyone. So the onus is on you as the project manager to understand what's going on and help everyone come out of the situation feeling positive. Okay, so let's start with some of the sources of conflict within a project. Regardless of where you are in a project life cycle, conflict can arise. This could happen from impractical ways of thinking or by implementing very strict administrative processes that people don't like. They could come out of character clashes, a difference in opinion, unrealistic expectations and, of course, poor communication. If these aren't dealt with properly, it can lead to stress and impact on team morale and even increase costs and delays to delivery. So how can you resolve conflict effectively to make sure this doesn't happen? As a project manager, you should be familiar with using a number of strategies to resolve conflict that can occur in your team. The common resolution strategy choices will depend on a number of specific factors, including the level of assertiveness and cooperation. Assertiveness has to deal with the level of importance something has for you as a project manager, while corporation has to do with how important the issue is for team members impacted. Let's plot these against a graph like this using the Thomas-Kilmann model for conflict resolution. As you can see, there are five ways you can resolve conflict. Collaboration allows both parties to work together in order to find a beneficial solution. This can take time as it's essential for you to agree and to work together towards creative solutions. Competition involves one person using their full potential to achieve their goals by working alone to exclude the other person. Compromise is about both parties attempting to partially achieve their goals by having to make some sacrifices along the way. Accommodation needs one party to sacrifice their own goals and accept the decision made by the other person. Finally, you can avoid conflict by ignoring the concerns or issues with the other party. Instead, you may decide to ignore the conflict, delay dealing with it, or even set the issues aside all together. And that's it for this video. Effective conflict resolution can do more than simply end arguments and can actually help your team grow and move forward. However, failure to resolve conflict properly can also result in teams falling apart or delays and additional costs. In this video, we focused on what conflict resolution is and five ways you can deal with conflict in any project.