Conflict in the team: the Glasl ladder

Every team has conflict. If yours has none, it doesn’t mean everything is fine: it means people aren’t saying what they think, and that’s worse.

The problem isn’t conflict. It’s conflict that’s left to grow. The kind that starts with a comment in a meeting and ends with two departments not speaking to each other, customers badly served and someone looking for a job elsewhere.

A conflict climbs steps

The Austrian economist and mediator Friedrich Glasl described something every managing director has seen without putting a name to it: conflicts escalate in stages, and each stage is harder to reverse than the one before. He proposed nine steps grouped into three zones.

What matters about this model isn’t memorising the nine steps. It’s understanding two things: the sooner you act, the cheaper it is; and beyond a certain point, a friendly conversation is no longer enough.

When it stops sorting itself out

Many managing directors wait. They think it’s something between adults and that time will sort it out. Sometimes it does. But there are clear signs that the conflict has moved up a zone and won’t sort itself out any more:

• Each side talks about the other with other people, but not with them.
• Factions start to form within the team.
• Personal attacks appear, not about the work but about the person.
• The conflict is already affecting customers, deadlines or quality.

When you see two of these signs, it’s no longer time to wait. It’s time to step in.

How I approach it

My way of working starts from an idea I repeat a lot: we managers have a right to know the truth. And that includes conflicts. A hidden conflict doesn’t disappear; it festers.

When I step in, I follow an order:

1. I talk to each side separately. To understand what’s behind it. It’s almost never what it seems: what looks like a personality clash is usually a problem of conflicting objectives, resources or badly defined roles.
2. I separate facts from interpretations. “He didn’t pass me the order on time” is a fact. “He does it to annoy me” is an interpretation.
3. I bring both sides together, in private and with time to spare. Never in front of the team. Each explains their version without interruptions.
4. I look for the common interest. There almost always is one: the customer, the area’s results, the company. That’s the starting point.
5. I close with a written agreement. What each person will do, what we’ll do if it happens again and when we’ll review it. If it isn’t written down, it hasn’t been agreed.

The typical mistakes of a managing director who mediates

• Taking sides too early. As soon as one side feels the boss has already decided, they stop cooperating.
• Resolving it by decree. An order can cut the argument short, but not the conflict. It’ll come back, and stronger.
• Mediating in public. Nobody admits a mistake in front of their colleagues.
• Not following up. An agreement without review is a truce, not a solution.
• Confusing peace with silence. Nobody arguing doesn’t mean the conflict has been resolved.

A red line

Some situations aren’t for mediation. Harassment, threats, discrimination or any form of violence aren’t conflicts between two parties: they’re behaviours that must be stopped, and that’s what internal protocols and, if needed, legal advice are for. Mediating there would put the person suffering and the aggressor on the same level.

The Resolve a conflict tool tells you which step it’s on, what’s usually behind it and how to steer the conversation towards a written agreement.

Reference: Friedrich Glasl, conflict escalation model (“Konfliktmanagement”, 1980).