Chapter 7: Resolving Conflict--Turning the Blame Game into Problem Solving

Overview

When people think about teams, they think about competition. Sports teams compete. Debate teams compete. Players on teams compete for playing time and assignment to key positions . Competition produces conflict. If handled well, it pushes us to produce at our best. If handled poorly, people's feelings get hurt and the team and organization suffer as well.

I recently had the opportunity to work with a hospital system that was suffering from the effects of unproductive conflict. The trouble centered on the fact that occasionally in the middle of surgery it would be discovered that a needed instrument was missing from the case assigned to the operation. Sometimes whole cases of instruments were missing or arrived at the very last minute. The doctors would yell at the nurses. The nurses would get on the phone and berate the technicians in the central sterilizing room who packed the cases. The technicians would blame the transporters in the logistics department who delivered the cases.

The conflict was primarily between units, but the stress of the conflict led to bickering and finger pointing within the teams as well. In addition, the nursing staff happened to be primarily Caucasian females, the technicians in central sterile processing were African-American females, the transporters were African-American males, and the doctors were primarily male and foreign-born. Accusations of racism and sexism added to the tension. The more time was spent trying to determine who was to blame, the less progress was made. The key to improvement ended up being the willingness of the key leaders from each unit ”and from upper management ”to analyze the process for instrument selection, sterilization, and delivery and to engage in systematic problem solving.

Conflicts you have experienced with teams in your organization might not have had the life-and-death implications of my client's situation. However, I assume you have felt the tension associated with conflict. In fact many people shy away from taking on leadership responsibilities because they know that at some point they will be dragged into conflict-laden situations. This chapter is designed to provide you with tools to help others help themselves in these circumstances. It will emphasize the importance of reducing time spent playing the blame game and channeling the energy toward what actually needs to be done about the situation.