Creating a Low-Conflict Environment

Psychological Safety:
Creating a positive and safe work environment is critical for preventing conflicts. There is one
area in particular that has been shown to be important, and that is psychological safety. In a
psychologically safe environment, individuals and teams feel confident expressing themselves,
making mistakes, and speaking up because they trust that they will not be reprimanded or
ridiculed, and that they will be supported in their quest for improvement. In fact, research
conducted by Google found that the factor that made specific teams, or individuals within the
teams, thrive was psychological safety. Here are tips for creating a work environment that
encourages openness to share, respect for ideas, and support of creativity and improvement.
Doing this will create a low-conflict workplace.

Be Consistent:
Use a consistent approach for how you, as a manager for instance, and the company itself handle
conflict. If employees feel certain that their concerns will honored and dealt with fairly by
management, trust will develop. Being consistent helps you avoid giving the impression that you
are favoring one person over another, which leads to resentment. This is why it’s important to
have established company or department values, norms, and policies and to apply them
consistently.

Does your department, team, or organization have consistent, established valued, norms and
policies for how conflict is to be handled?

If so, are staff members aware and do they follow established methods?

Are the methods effective?

If methods are not effective or there are no established guidelines, what can you do to get the ball
rolling toward establishing such policies? (Hint: Use what you learn in this course to draft a
conflict management policy. See below.)

Establish a Code of Ethics and Workplace Conflict Guidelines:

It is important that every employee is aware of the company’s code of ethics and workplace
conflict guidelines. Every employee should have easy access to this information and the
organization should give examples illustrating the intentions of the policy and how it positively
impacts individuals and the organization. These guidelines should paint a clear picture of what is
and not acceptable. Every new employee should be trained on this, so that they can fit into the
company culture. This seems basic, but studies have found that 84 percent of employees talk to
their colleges about job related problems and conflicts, while only 65 percent of companies have
a formal way of addressing conflicts or problems. There should also be clear guidelines and pre-
determined action steps for reporting, intervening, and resolving conflicts. Having clear policies
takes pressure off both management and staff, who otherwise would have to make decisions for
how to handle conflicts, leading to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and negative
outcomes.

Create Consequences:
With that said it is also important to have specific consequences for specific behaviors, and most
importantly to actually follow through on them. These consequences should be part of the
guidelines. If employees know that there are consequences, and that they are implemented, they
will avoid doing the things that will create the conflict you are trying to avoid. One important
factor with consequences is that you have to be consistent and not allow biases or special
treatment because if employees think that a particular person can break the rules and not get in
trouble they will resent and lose respect for the leader and organization. At the same time, having
pre-determined consequences helps prevent employees from blaming whatever leader initiates
the consequences because they can clearly see that the response was not personal, instead it was
a pre-determined action and the manager was simply following protocol.

Are there pre-determined consequences for certain behaviors in your organization?

In your department?

Do you have such consequences with your direct subordinates?

If not, what behaviors do you belief should have clear consequences?

What do you believe they should be?

Give Positive Feedback:

Giving consistent positive feedback about what is going right and showing appreciation for
collaboration and cooperation reinforces desired behavior. Being recognized makes employees
feel valued, empowers them to do what is within their power to prevent and resolve conflicts,
and be more committed to the organization. At the same time, it provides the example for other
team members to follow. Also, keep in mind that studies have shown that positive work
environment reduces stress, increases creativity and productivity, and helps people better deal
with challenges as they arise.

Does your organization have an established method for recognizing employees?

Do you, personally, provide positive feedback to your subordinates?

If not, in what ways could you reward, praise, or otherwise provide positive feedback?

How do you believe this would impact your employees?

In what ways could you share positive feedback and appreciation with your coworkers or
leadership?
Keep Moral High by Encouraging Humor and Fun:
One of the best ways to create a low-conflict environment is to keep stress levels low. Of course,
preventing conflicts and having an established process for handling them goes a long way to
preventing stress, but another powerful method is to help employees relieve normal everyday
stress through humor and fun in the workplace.
 Encourage activities that allow staff members to let loose and/or have fun.
 Consider starting otherwise stressful or confrontational meetings with funny videos.
 Offer group exercise programs.
 Hold social events where employees can socialize and get to know each other or plan
more formal team-building programs.
The more comfortable employees are with each other and the happier they are at work, the less
tension will build and the easier it will be to prevent or minimize conflict.

What ways could you increase happiness, humor, and fun in your organization?

In your team?

With you direct subordinates?