Conflict & Teamwork

Monday, June 25, 2007

Through working with my team members on Assignment 3, in terms of my strengths in managing conflict I am relieved that I was able to stay calm when issues arises instead of panicking and escalating into a conflict in my team. As for my weakness, I realized that I wasn’t proficient or capable enough in coming up with brilliant ideas. For instance, my group’s storyline is pretty typical. I wasn’t creative enough to come up with original and imaginative ideas.

My strengths in teamwork are that I complete whatever tasks assigned to me to my fullest potential, in the sense that I give it my best shot; not that my work will be perfect though. My weakness in teamwork is that I couldn’t help solve certain problems effectively.Teamwork is the concept of people working together cooperatively.

Teamwork helps us face challenges and obstacles in a way that strengthens relationships and minimizes conflicts. Teamwork skills can be helpful because it helps me to get extra support from my friends when I need it. In order to be a successful team, my team members must be able to communicate, problem-solve and negotiate. We should be flexible, adaptable and able to work together to succeed and stay competitive.

I have also learnt that skills like listening, questioning, persuading, respecting, helping, sharing participating and communicating are important for teamwork. The most effective teamwork is produced when all the teammates involved harmonize their contributions towards a common goal. In fact, commitment and the setting of clear goals are characteristics of an effective team. Good teammates are willing to compromise, think of ways to solve problems and not demand that their ideas are used.

Conflict is a natural part of relationships amongst friends. The key is how we handle conflict. Additionally, the way in which one manages conflict can affect his or her health and happiness. Conflict is inevitable in social relationships- even in the strongest of relationships, much less conflicts among friends in the course of a project. Since conflicts reduce productivity, how we respond to it is therefore important.

I found 3 strategies that are useful in managing conflicts. Firstly, bring the conflict out into the open and not keep quiet or ignore them. Secondly, reach positive, productive resolutions to the conflicts. Thirdly, develop honest, forthright and positive relationships with teammates. In short, we should take heed of our teammate’s advice, be positive instead of ignorant.

My style of conflict management is that I will take time out to consider the issues (problems) and my response. I will not feel pressured to resolve the situation immediately. I will usually communicate my viewpoints firmly but not demand that my ideas have to be accepted as this can probably escalate into a conflict in my team. This style is effective for me as I wouldn’t feel pressurized by the obstacles and blow my top as a result.

An example will be a Business Law project that my peers and I embarked on. We had to submit an article and start on the project subsequently. However, the article that we had chosen was already taken by another group, yet the deadline for submission was the very next day. I was anxious and worried but I tried not to feel pressurized to solve the situation immediately although I knew for sure that we would be late for submission. I took some time to consider if we should continue searching for articles or approach the tutor. Finally, after some discussion with my teammates, I spoke to the tutor and we were entitled to a postponed deadline.

In the course of my group’s project, I remembered once when we had different suggestions about how our story should progress. That incident wasn’t really a conflict because we didn’t quarrel and argue over it, just that we had contradicting views. Still, the techniques that I used to manage the problem were to compromise and collaborate. Compromising is appropriate when teammates are satisfied with a part of their requests and are willing to be flexible. In a compromise, all parties will receive something and all parties will need to give up something. Collaboration, on the other hand, encourages teamwork and cooperation within a team. Collaboration works best when there is trust and respect among teammates. It does not establish winners and losers.

On the contrary, through Assignment 3, I have come to realize my weakness and strengths in teamwork and managing conflict. Identifying my weakness prompts me to improve and develop more strength which can greatly benefit me in future projects or even relationships with my peers and family members. Through my findings in managing conflict, I can put them to use should the need arises. Strategies in managing conflict are helpful in projects like this and I am sure adopting these strategies will greatly help in resolving or even preventing conflicts in future.

Reference:
http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/parents_teamwork_skills_managing_conflict.html/context304
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teamwork
http://www.hoyweb.com/faq/relation.htm#strategies