How to Prevent Conflict in Virtual Teams
Common signs of team conflict are: a long, loud, insistent speech or silence, looking away, and staying out of it. . . Supervisors should react by setting boundaries and following up on silence, for example by saying “I would be interested in your opinion on the subject!”
Supervisors can prevent conflict by creating transparency. Make clear why it is effective to quickly connect virtually and address what is missing. Devote enough time to finding out how everyone is really doing. Encourage openness and share with your team the benefits and challenges of working from home. Supervisors are responsible for supporting their remote teams and catering to their needs in the workplace. Some people work very hard, take few breaks, and hardly interact. Stuck at home, others struggle with structure and self-discipline. A lack of social contact can also affect motivation and concentration. Discussions and personal questions help you establish whether employees need support to stay healthy and able to work in the medium term.
Virtual space requires us to use words to make up for informal communication. This is chance to stop taking things for granted and to expressly state what is important to us and how we understand things. Observations should be addressed in a non-judgmental way; it is important to approach all matters positively and objectively.
Placing greater emphasis on emotion management can improve the learning curve. Changes imposed against our will trigger emotions. It is effective prevention to speak up about them without judgment. Introductory rounds can be well worthwhile. For example, ask “What’s on your agenda, today?” (matter level) “Do I need support? Who can help me?” (team level) and “How is our collaboration going?” (cooperative level)
Conflict Prevention and Resolution is happy to assist you. We offer individual self-clarification counseling for supervisors and employees and moderated clarification for two or more persons—in person or online.