How to Resolve Conflict Between Colleagues: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Resolve Conflict Between Colleagues, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Practices that may help
- Engage in productive ideological conflict
Teams that avoid conflict don’t avoid disagreement — they bury it, where it grows into resentment and bad decisions.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Made Practical - Collaborating (assertive and cooperative)
Work the underlying interests until you find a solution that genuinely meets both sides’ needs.
The Five Conflict-Resolution Styles - Transform the relationship, not just the issue
Use each conflict as an opportunity to raise the quality of the relationship itself.
The Third Alternative, Made Practical - Separate the person from the problem
Treat the conflict as a problem you face together, not a contest you fight each other.
The Third Alternative, Made Practical - Competing (assertive, uncooperative)
Pursue your own position firmly when speed, principle, or stakes outweigh the relationship cost.
The Five Conflict-Resolution Styles - Use Collaborating when the relationship and the solution both matter
Collaborating — high assertive, high cooperative — finds a solution that genuinely works for both parties, but it takes time.
The Thomas–Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) - Find mutual purpose
Establish a shared goal both people care about so the conversation is "us vs the problem".
Crucial Conversations, Made Practical - Use Competing when speed or safety matters more than buy-in
Competing — high assertive, low cooperative — is appropriate when the decision is urgent, high-stakes, and not open for debate.
The Thomas–Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) - Storming: name the conflict without taking sides
Surface the tension that’s already there rather than managing it away.
Tuckman’s Stages of Team Development - Accommodating (cooperative, unassertive)
Yield to the other’s needs when the issue matters far more to them than to you.
The Five Conflict-Resolution Styles
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Our meetings are all polite nods and "sounds good," and then the real opinions come out afterward in side conversations and quiet eye-rolls
- We both keep digging into our positions and neither of us is really hearing why the other one cares
- We solve the immediate thing but the same ugly dynamic underneath stays exactly the same, so the next disagreement plays out identically
- Somewhere in this I stopped seeing a problem we both have and started seeing the other person AS the problem
- Something’s genuinely wrong here and there’s no time to coax everyone to a comfortable yes
Related concerns
- How To Deal With Conflict Between Two Team Members
Teams that avoid conflict don’t avoid disagreement — they bury it, where it grows into resentment and bad decisions.
Engage in productive ideological conflict
- Best Way To Handle Conflict Between Two Employees
Work the underlying interests until you find a solution that genuinely meets both sides’ needs.
Collaborating (assertive and cooperative)
- Best Way To Resolve Conflict Between Team Members
Teams that avoid conflict don’t avoid disagreement — they bury it, where it grows into resentment and bad decisions.
- How Do You Resolve Conflict At Work
Use each conflict as an opportunity to raise the quality of the relationship itself.
Transform the relationship, not just the issue
- How To Deal With Interpersonal Conflict Between Coworkers
Teams that avoid conflict don’t avoid disagreement — they bury it, where it grows into resentment and bad decisions.
- How To Handle Conflict Between Two Employees
Work the underlying interests until you find a solution that genuinely meets both sides’ needs.
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