HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict

by Amy Gallo

Learn to assess the situation, manage your emotions, and move on.

While some of us enjoy a lively debate with colleagues and others prefer to suppress our feelings over disagreements, we all struggle with conflict at work. Every day we navigate an office full of competing interests, clashing personalities, limited time and resources, and fragile egos. Sure, we share the same overarching goals as our colleagues, but we don't always agree on how to achieve them. We work differently. We rub each other the wrong way. We jockey for position.

How can you deal with conflict at work in a way that is both professional and productive--where it improves both your work and your relationships? You start by understanding whether you generally seek or avoid conflict, identifying the most frequent reasons for disagreement, and knowing what approaches work for what scenarios. Then, if you decide to address a particular conflict, you use that information to plan and conduct a productive conversation. The HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict will give you the advice you need

Understand the most common sources of conflictExplore your options for addressing a disagreementRecognize whether you--and your counterpart--typically seek or avoid conflictPrepare for and engage in a difficult conversationManage your and your counterpart's emotionsDevelop a resolution togetherKnow when to walk awayArm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, with the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Management, Personal Development, Self Help, Communication

205 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 14, 2017

Reviews

[The Conch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conflict is unavoidable as long one is living in the earth. This book enables one to know type of conflicts and conflict seeker or avoider. Once one knows their type, they can navigate through conflict.

This book lists some dos and don'ts during conversation. Overall this book is useful during negotiation and handling office politics.

[Elisabeth Marksteiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some useful ideas of how to reframe conversations.

[Darya · Rating 5 out of 5]

#bookstoread about #conflict and how to resolve them at work. Harvard Business Review has got a fab #book from HBR Guide to series on "Dealing with Conflict" by Amy Gallo. Check out my short summary 👇
Types of conflict:
1. Relationship (personal issues) - do nothing
2. Task (the goal you try to achieve) - address indirectly
3. Process (how the work gets done) - address directly
4. Status (you are in the group who is in charge) - exit the relationship.
Other tips can be found in the book!
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dariya...

[Justin Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A birthday present from my Dad because dealing with conflict is something that we often discuss. I am 100% a conflict seeker and am optimistic with the framework outlined in the text I will have an easier time navigating said conflict.

The overall guidance of knowing ones self, research, preparing, and managing your emotions in the conflict itself was pretty straightforward. This echoes a lot of military strategy like Sun Tzu.

What I found particularly valuable were the common types of conflicts, how people deal with them, and common situations. This made the text very tangible and I immediately identified a few areas in my day to day that I can change to minimize some on going conflicts. The sample questions and responses seem fake but I guess that is what it means to manage your emotions and communicate effectively.

Overall the book presents a logical method to approach conflict. I would recommend to anyone who wants to put conflict into perspective.

[A. M. Faisal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too generalized a view with a ton of quotes from HR specialist makes this piece a ridiculous conundrum. Over the whole spread, she constantly focuses on holding one's emotion and taking a break if necessary. Of course, the very subject is subjective but trying to make it sound objective is objectively clichéd. Yet the book is one of the bests in the business.
Taking this in, helps a reader in many ways that are not apparent altogether. But change is there. May be, that's the beauty of this kind of texts.
clichéd, right? That's the main point!

[Nick Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical read. I like the 10 most common situations where conflict arises. I could relate to all of these, but I’d say there are 5 that come up most often. Having them identified, stated explicitly by way of identifying behaviours and strategies for dealing with this is reassuring. I’m interested in the templates and process for base-lining conflict (ie rules of engagement) with the team - this is available in the digital edition.

[Jack Vinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid advice on dealing with conflicts between people. Somewhat different from what my perspective is, in that conflicts come from the underlying system.

More on my blog: https://www.jackvinson.com/blog/2020/...

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear, concise, lots of good example behaviour and language examples.

[Mohd Al-Emadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful book. It provides us with different types of conflicts occur in the work environment. How to manage them, and how they can be resolved.

[Bayad Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

A practical framework in dealing with conflicts at work.

[Bogdan Panainte · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book

Sometime we forget the basic stuff. A good remember of the steps and action you need to make in order to have a nice work environment.

[Rhonda N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Simplistic, lacking in insight beyond conflict resolution 101. Did not find any take-aways that I did not learn for myself in my first couple years of management.

[Isil Arican · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty simple concepts explained in some generic examples. Nothing earth shattering. Good for a new HR manager, redundant if you are a seasoned one.

[Oliver S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samling af viden fra andre bøger og eksperter. Hurtigt læst og som sådan fin nok. Ikke så meget nyt under solen, men altid fint med en opfrisker.

[Diego Arredondo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The same as all the other books on the series. Great tips and nice book suggestions

[Jessica Toro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straight and to-the-point. Super helpful!

[Megi wants to live in a Library. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good information but hard to get through (dry reading).

[André Gomes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

[Lesly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Práctico y conciso

Lectura rápida pero con el material suficiente para aplicar de inmediato en un entorno laboral, comparte varios ejemplos y escenarios.

[Steffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical relatively concise guide. Would be especially useful if you have a particular situation you need to work through at work.

[Jb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty bland and corporate, but soles useful nuggets

[Katie Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

8

[Damien O'Brien]

Wealth of information but more of a personal opinion of one women and her struggles in business environment, gives good examples of conflicts with (fake people) as examples, but Unfortunately I found this to be Quite distracting rather than beneficial.