Conflict And The Hybrid Worker
●● Avoiding (avoiding conflict,
sidestepping the issue,
withdrawing)
●● Accommodating (neglecting
their own concerns to
satisfy the concerns of
other people)
●● Competing (pursuing
their own goals at others’
expense)
●● Collaborating (working with
others to find a solution that
fully satisfies the concerns of
both parties)
●● Compromising
(splitting the difference,
exchanging concessions,
or seeking a quick
middle-ground position).
Reading these descriptions, some
may sound better to you or more
adaptive than others are. But
actually, all of them are equally
good – when they are used in the
right situation. And, especially in
a hybrid working environment, all
have their problems if they are
over-used. This can be an issue
as though we can use all five of
these modes, at different times,
we will naturally tend to mainly
just use one or two. These may
not always be the optimum way
to approach conflict in the new
hybrid workplace.
Avoiding
Although Avoiding may sound like
a cop-out, it can be a very useful
strategy. In our working lives,
most of us have lots of things
going on, often more than we
can deal with right now; Avoiding
can be a good way of parking
issues until you have the time
and headspace to deal with them.
When an issue is trivial, or trivial
for you, it makes sense to stay
out of it. If you are a manager,
sometimes it makes sense to
let people solve problems for
themselves. However, if you
over-use avoiding, your views will
not be heard and so this approach
may not be ideal especially if
you are taking part in a meeting
remotely, but others are there in
person. And as a manager of a
remote or hybrid worker, you may
miss the cues that they can’t solve
that problem by themselves.
Accommodating
It may be hard to admit it, but we
do sometimes need to defer to
others and go with the flow. We
might meet our long-term goals
better if we park our immediate
needs, perhaps especially if we
are working in a more hierarchical
environment. And sometimes, just
sometimes, we might realise that
we are wrong about something,
and that we need to defer to the
other person. Of course, if you
over-use Accommodating, you are
restricting how influential you are,
your needs may not be met, and
others may think that they can do
whatever they want regardless of
your views.
Compromising
When something is quite
important to you, but not really
crucial, when you want to save
your energy for other battles,
then Compromising might be
the mode to use. And when both
you and the person you are in
conflict with have really strong
views, then you may need to
compromise, especially when
time is short or when, in a hybrid
or remote working environment,
communication is less straightforward.
If, however, you over-use
Compromising, you can lose sight
of the big picture, and people
may start to wonder what you
really think and lose trust in you.
This can be exacerbated if you
are working remotely, and they
cannot talk to you in person. If
everything is negotiable, people
become cynical.
Competing
There are a number of places
where Competing can be the right
approach, such as when a quick
decision is needed and there really
isn’t time to consult and debate.
Or when you need to take a
difficult decision, that you know is
the right thing to do, but you also
know is going to be unpopular.
Or maybe you need to make a
stand on something that’s really
important to you. And there might
be times when you are working
with very competitive people, and
you need to take this approach
yourself or be walked over. But
if you over-use Competing, you’ll
end up surrounded by yes men
and women. People will be afraid
to contradict you, and you won’t
learn from your mistakes. And it is
a lot easier to assume that people
do agree with you when you aren’t
talking face to face.
Personal Excellence presented by HR.com JANUARY 2022 35 Submit Your Articles
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