Mediating as a PM

- Projects are living things. They're not just the written desires of a sponsor or dates on a calendar. A project is a manifestation of the wants, needs, and desires of many different stakeholders. Yet, here's where that gets tricky. Everyone is a unique individual. They have their own perspectives, thoughts, feelings, and even misconceptions. In this lesson, I'm going to share two key aspects of managing conflict on a project and how to handle them outside of a project. As a people leader, you'll be able to explain the value you bring as a project manager in resolving conflict. Before you manage conflict, you need to understand how you fit into conflict. First, the project manager is the person who most understands the goals of the project. They recognize what accomplishes the project's deliverables, and by virtue of knowing that, what will not accomplish it. The project manager is the person who is most focused on the task at hand and can direct the energy within a conflict towards an outcome that serves the project. A good project manager makes the project's success their top professional goal. By doing this, you'll provide value for the organization and make yourself a fair mediator who resolves conflicts. Second, the project manager is the person most connected to the stakeholders. In many projects, there can be a diverse array of stakeholders where people lack common ground when conflict arises. And I promise you it will. The project manager, being the person who has to interact with these many different team members actually becomes that common ground. Let me share a story that illustrates this. I was the project manager for a large technology project that involved several different specialties. And some members of one team would often come into conflict with another. For whatever reason, these folks just couldn't get along. So in my role, I leveraged my relationships and was able to bring them together to sort through the challenges, build a process to fix the conflict, and get the focus back onto finishing the project, not just squabbling with each other. It sounds simple because it is, but simple things can be really hard to do, and sometimes it takes a person to be a bridge. As the chief connector, you can be a powerful example and resolve conflicts for your team and your stakeholders. These two simple aspects, when you take them to heart, can really empower the way that you manage conflict. So leverage your relationships and bring people together to refocus on where effort is needed. I encourage you to own these two aspects, and I promise the next time your team faces a roadblock, you can help them move past it. I know you have what it takes to be a great mediator.