Dealing with Conflict During a Crisis: A Guide for Local Leaders
The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is collaborating with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Coronavirus Local Response Initiative to support mayors as they manage COVID-19. This article covers key points from session five of the Coronavirus Local Response Initiative, drawing on the work of Howard Koh and Jorrit de Jong.
Facing Conflict
The most energy-intensive work you have to do as mayor involves convening and collaborating with others across departments, sectors, and levels of government. These efforts leave you and your staff working overtime to navigate tangles of red tape and manage tensions around resources and finances, turf, personalities, and access to power. Leading collaborative work in the midst of an unfolding and evolving crisis while keeping the urgent needs of your community front and center strains the best of us, but it also offers our best chance at an effective response and a resilient recovery.
Sources of Conflict
Since you were undoubtedly already seeking cross-boundary solutions for “wicked problems” in your community before this particular crisis hit, you already know that:
- Each wicked problem is a unique snarl of other problems, there are no perfect solutions, and progress is slow and halting
- There is competition for limited resources.
- Different actors and stakeholders hold different beliefs, opinions, and values. There are different communication styles and preferences, different interests, and different organizational cultures and assumptions.
- There are concerns about sensitivity to different groups of historically disadvantaged stakeholders that can put everyone on edge.
All that is challenging in ordinary times. But when you drop it all into the exceptionally volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment the COVID-19 crisis produces, little wonder that tensions start to boil over, even when assuming the best intentions from everyone.
Managing Conflict
Broadly speaking, there are five approaches to consider regarding conflict:
- Avoid — ignore the conflict and take no action
- Force — use your formal authority without regard to the other party
- Accommodate — yield to the other party
- Compromise — identify a partially satisfactory solution for both sides
- Collaborate — co-operate with the other party to understand their concerns in order to find a mutually satisfying solution
The last option deserves special consideration in a time of crisis. The bad news is that it takes more time and energy than the others. The good news is that it gets you moving in the direction you want to go and ensures that you don’t have to go it alone.
↗️ Read more about collaborating in crisis with cross-boundary teams
About the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative
The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is a collaboration among Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Its mission is to inspire and strengthen city leaders, as well as equip them with the tools to lead high-performing, innovative cities. Learn more on the Initiative’s website.
