Effective negotiating is critical to successful collaboration. All it takes is one key problem to explode to convert a sense of “we” into “us versus them.” At the same time, negotiating is pervasive through all aspects of project management work. Successful Negotiating – Requirements Project managers must negotiate support and funding from top management. They…
Tag: Conflict
Negotiation – 4 Key Points To Increase Your Effectiveness
The introduction to the art of negotiation can be found here. I encourage you to read that first to get the an introduction to the topic and then come back to this article. I have provided links between the two for easy navigation. Negotiation Framework Fisher and Ury from the Harvard Negotiation Project champion an…
Dealing With Unreasonable People the BATNA Framework
Most people working on projects realize that in the long run it is beneficial to work toward mutually satisfying solutions. Still, occasionally you encounter someone who has a dominant win/lose attitude about life and will be difficult to deal with. Fisher and Ury recommend that you use negotiation jujitsu when dealing with unreasonable people, such…
Managing Conflicts Within the Project
Disagreements and conflicts naturally emerge within a project team during the life of the project. Participants will disagree over priorities, allocation of resources the quality of specific work, solutions to discovered problems, and so forth. Some conflicts support the goals of the group and improve project performance. Effectively managing conflicts within the project is critical…
Do You Encourage Functional Conflict?
The demarcation between functional conflict and dysfunctional conflict is neither clear nor precise. In one team, members may exchange a diatribe of four-letter expletives and eventually resolve their differences. Yet in another project team, such behavior would create irreconcilable divisions and would prohibit the parties from ever working together productively again. The distinguishing criterion is…
Manage Dysfunctional Conflict Easily Using This 5 Step Framework
Managing dysfunctional conflict is a much more challenging task than encouraging functional conflict. First, dysfunctional conflict is hard to identify. A manager might have two highly talented professionals who hate each others guts, but in the heat of competition they produce meritorious results. Is this a pleasant situation? No. Is it functional? Yes, as long…