Conflicts among different departments can occur often. Everyone wants to look out for herself and play the blame game, instead of realizing that you’re all working together to provide the best services and products possible.

Use these skills from Jim Tamm, author of Radical Collaboration, to foster a friendly and collaborative relationship with co-workers in other departments. Everyone will be able to get her job done faster and more efficiently as a result.

• Think mutual success. Know that you’re all working towards the same goal, so it’s important for you to care about your colleagues’ needs and points of view as much as it’s important for them to care about yours. Get off the defensive.
• Be truthful. Be honest with your co-workers about your opinions and intentions in the workplace. For example, don’t tell a planner that you’re going to start her job next if you really aren’t. Lying to keep her quiet at the moment is going to blow up in your face when she finds out what you really did. You’ll ruin your credibility by speaking anything other than the truth.
• Take responsibility. If you make a mistake, say so. Don’t try to push it off on another department; that department manager probably won’t trust you again and will be more apt to blame you in the future. Work together with your co-workers to find solutions to problems, rather than deciding whose fault it was.
• Be aware of yourself and others. Try your best to understand your co-workers’ thoughts and feelings, and they’ll try to understand yours. You want to be able to ask your co-workers, “What’s up?” when they’re behaving differently. You can then be able to predict how they might react to a certain situation and plan accordingly.
• Use conflict as a learning tool. Most people think of a conflict’s negative aspects, but you can take some positives away from an argument with a fellow co-worker. Use the disagreement to teach you what makes your co-worker unhappy or what she feels strongly about. You can avoid future conflicts with her by thinking critically.

Filed under: Management Minute