I’m looking forward to this thanks :)

This is definitely going to be a very interesting topic for discussion this week!

I’d love to hear everyone’s perspective. Inviting a few of our community friends here to share their thoughts! @mmccoy @danwrite  @stevemc @zachary.king @Bex @JulianeB @chianne.shepherd @MBraga @foxcubmama @Figgilant @tboardman 

Looking forward to this!! Its always interesting to see everyone’s point of view!

Really excited to see y’all tomorrow, @manns and @foxcubmama  

Really looking forward to this session !

Hey everyone!
 
Six important things to know before we get started on our coffee chat 

1. To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option 

2. If you cannot make it at 11:00 am EST or even if you’re past time, you can still post your answer to a particular question.

3. You can reply to each others threads/posts to keep the conversation going.

4. Be polite and respectful of other people’s opinions.

5. Most importantly, have a great time here!

6. Lastly, I will make sure to engage with all of you to make this interesting! 

Hey everyone! Welcome to our coffee chat. 

Apologies for the delay, we’ve been facing some downtime with out platform. It’s up and running now, so here it goes! 

First question for today is here below. To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering this question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the quote the option

Q1 What are the different kinds of conflicts you see in a small/big team?

A1: Having seen both worlds, a small and a big team, I think the kind of conflicts I’ve seen are or at least related to things such as OKRs, goals, project picking, and resource allocation.
For example, when deciding the tools that help propel a project, everyone likes to give their input, including the seasoned players. Sometimes, teammates end up not convincing anyone. In this case, arriving at a decision becomes tedious. On the other hand, the team has a bunch of ideas or things to ponder over. Having said that, if you are racing against time, it’s better to take the help of a seasoned player on the team and then disagree but commit whole-heartedly.  

Welcome @alyssia.correa <3 

Hey everyone! we’re just getting started, please join us! 

@mmccoy @danwrite  @stevemc @zachary.king @Bex @JulianeB @chianne.shepherd @MBraga @foxcubmama @Figgilant @tboardman @manns @foxcubmama 

A1. My experience is that conflicts tend to be personal in nature, or they at least start this way (if a conflict later becomes two-way or even multi-way), and by this I mean that they often stem from an individual “not liking” something. This could be an individual feeling that they’ve been treated differently to someone else, ignored, taken for granted, had their opinion overlooked in a decision, disliked something that someone else has said or done, or many other things. 

A1 - I have a small team (6-7 peeps) and we are tight nit… but we have some new personalities on the team and so far our main conflicts have been miscommunications and misunderstandings which are generally easy to clear up! 

I’m interested to see what other people here are dealing with and learning vicariously through their experiences.

A1. (part 2) In addition to the conflicts that are seen it’s also important to understand that there will be conflicts that aren’t seen. It’s something that means that conflict prevention is just as important as conflict resolution. Again these hidden conflicts could stem from a variety of causes – from the perception of inequitable treatment to decisions conflicting with personal beliefs and opinions.

Totally. It’s always Understand, Listen, Plan, and Prioritize. 

A1: Hi everyone! I think that big teams need a well-organized workflow. If you build a workflow considering the risks, there will be no conflict because if you have so many point views you can take a step confidently. However, small teams are harder to manage. There are a few people in there and democracy may not help to solve, especially personal, conflicts.

So interesting!! I think small teams are easier to manage because its a small group of people working towards a common goal - with well managed (and communicated) expectations it should be easier right??

A1. Great question, Akshara! I think in big teams, some conflicts that come up fairly often are individuals working in silos and not completely understanding how one person’s work informs another. We run risk of repetitive work or redundant work which could cause conflict. In small teams, I’d say that there is more work per person and so if two or more parties butt heads, there is a chance that a lot of work gets stopped in bulk.

Second question for today is here!

To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering this question Q2, start your answer with A2 and use the quote the option

Q2. Is there a protocol to deal with conflicts. Please give us details!

A2: Here’s a personal way of doing it: schedule time with friends who you think will help and not aggravate the situation. Check if it’s worth picking up the battle. However, look for inspiration/advice and not influence. Post that, take it up a notch by discussing it with your manager only to make sure you solve it. So my personal protocol is Friends -> Manager -> Skip level manager (maybe). Rule of thumb is to never burn bridges anywhere! 

A2. If a conflict is visible, my response would be dependent on those involved and their personal behavioral preferences. Ideally, I’d like to get the conflicted parties together to talk through their issues, but this isn’t workable for some. In which case I’d speak to the parties alone and try to work out their common ground and toward a resolution. Either way it would be done away from the working environment and the earshot of others – although the conflict might end up being aired across the team, perhaps as a team meeting item, if it affected everyone and all their input was needed to find the best resolution.

That’s an interesting observation, Divya! Most often it’s the repetitive work or redundant work that causes conflict.

A2. (part 2) I don’t have a team now but when I did I used to ensure that issues such as the “hidden” conflicts I mentioned earlier were brought up at team-member one-to-ones by asking open questions such as:

• What’s making your work life harder than it needs to be?
• Is anything making you worried, upset, or unhappy?
• Is there anything I can do to help you to do your job?

This was good for drawing out conflicts and other issues.

It’s good that you consider the fact that if two parties are not willing to have the conversation, it’s best to hear them individually. 

A2. We have a discipline procedure and we follow it step by step. If we have no option other than reporting, HR takes over the case. Actually, it does not repeat too much because we have preventive measures for the teams. We can resolve almost all conflicts through humanitarian dialogs and sharing. We believe good management can be achieved with transparency and accountability.  I hope the transparency that we try to present remotivates our teams. They should see the metrics that we consider while we evaluate their performance. Otherwise, no one can accuse an agent with unpredictable statistics. The agents should also see their teammates' performance. This can motivate them to work better.