Conflict in meetings

• Are people constantly arguing, scoring points for its own sake?
• Are style differences causing conflicting views?
• Exploring these might create better mutual understanding.
• Could your meetings be managed in a more structured way?
• What ground rules are there for managing conflict?
• How about everyone agreeing to state positives of the other person's position before looking at negatives?
• Would it help to agree ground rules for your meetings regarding conflict?
• Can you agree what your role is in resolving conflict?
• If you referee, how can you resolve conflict so no one's alienated?
• It helps to praise strong points made by those you decide against.
• Making the winning side see that their view is not perfect either might help to foster a balanced outcome.
• Are there 2 people who at loggerheads more than others?
• What are their style or personality differences?
• How can discussing these with them foster understanding?
• What are they trying to achieve by attacking each other?
• Can you help them surface their underlying motives?
• And then to channel their energy in a more productive way?
• The key, regardless of the cause of conflict in your team, is to ask yourself: ''What could I do differently.''
• Focusing on others, in the first instance, leads to a blame approach that is not as productive as looking at what you might do.
• What other underlying issues might there be?
• People can argue out of frustration with unrelated things.
• If the team or organization is not performing, people feel down and might argue simply as a way of blowing off steam.
• Individuals whose performance is not up to par can also attack others as a way of defending themselves.
• It is essential to ask yourself why people are expressing frustration and not focus only on the symptom - what they are arguing about.
• In any case, how can you, as their leader, motivate them to pull together to turn things around?