To a certain extent, workplace conflict is inevitable and can even be productive. Disagreement is often an essential component of functional organizations; it can lead to refinement of ideas, clarification of problems, and creative solutions within organizations.
However, poorly managed and dysfunctional conflict is costly to organizations—and could be what’s keeping your organization from fulfilling your mission and reaching your financial goals.
Costs of Conflict
Too often, workplace conflict leads to wasted time, lower motivation, increased staff turnover, and makes it difficult for organizations to reach their strategic goals. (If you’re interested in how to calculate the precise cost of conflict to your organization, you can check out a calculator here.)
Based on my own experience, I’ve noticed recently:
Managers in Canadian organizations reporting that they spend somewhere between 25-40% of their time dealing with conflict
Workplaces seeing increased psychological injury claims and increased employee time spent on mental health leaves
Employees increasingly reporting burnout and low job satisfaction
Unresolved conflict erodes productivity, increases health costs, and consumes management time that could be spent fulfilling your organization’s goals and building organizational capacity.
When and Why to Hire a Conflict Consultant
The good news is that most workplace conflicts are predictable, preventable, and resolvable. Most workplace conflicts aren’t caused by bad people; they are caused by systems and structures that aren’t equipped to handle disagreements productively.
A workplace conflict consultant, like Blackbird Resolutions, can help you: assess where and how conflict arises in your organization; facilitate constructive solutions to current conflicts; and develop systemic and cultural strategies to prevent future conflicts.
Some signs that your organization could benefit from a workplace conflict consultation:
Frequent grievances and/ or HR complaints
Team meetings seem ineffective and standard decisions taking twice as long as they should.
Old arguments keep resurfacing—whether those are interpersonal conflicts or complaints about organizational structure
"Us vs. Them" dynamics are creeping in between departments, making collaboration difficult
Frequent absenteeism or medical leaves
Every organization’s needs are different but some of the strategies we use to assess and address organizational conflict are:
A free initial conversation offering tips on how to assess organizational conflict
Culture assessments that begin to intervene in workplace culture through the assessment process itself (not just a report that sits on a shelf)
Strategic interventions that address the root causes of conflict (e.g. policy changes, reporting structure reviews, etc.)
Group training or one-on-one mediation when appropriate—and always followed up with coaching to ensure lasing change
Are you ready to reduce conflict in your organization? Contact us to book a free consultation to discuss your team’s needs.
