Datasheet

Chapter 1

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Establishing Project Management Fundamentals

Negotiating and Problem-Solving Skills

Negotiating and problem-solving skills make up another foundation stone of successful project

management. Along with leadership and communication, you will use negotiating and

problem-solving skills almost daily. We’ll look at the typical project management situa-

tions where negotiation skills are needed next and follow up with an overview of five

conflict resolution techniques.

Negotiating Skills

Usually when we think of negotiation, we think of contracts or complex disputes that need

resolved. While that’s true, negotiation occurs on a much smaller scale as well. You will often

have to negotiate for team members with other managers in the organization, you’ll negotiate

for additional time or money, you’ll negotiate costs and delivery times with vendors, and there’s

usually a never-ending stream of project issues that require negotiation to resolve. These issues

can range from the very minor up to and including a decision to kill the project.

As a project manager, you may find yourself in a situation where you do not necessarily have

ultimate authority over the project decisions. For example, you may have several divisions

within your organization that have pooled their resources, both budget and people, to execute

a project. That means the stakeholders from each of the participating divisions have an equal say

in decisions or where and how money will be spent. Like the Survivors who use extreme mea-

sures to fight their way into the last-person-standing position, this calls for extreme negotiating

skills. Only in this example, you don’t want to be the last person standing; you want all the oth-

ers to come along with you. This means you’ll have to go beyond simple compromise. You’ll

need to establish effective relationships with the stakeholders and understand their needs and

issues. You’ll have to do a little personality sleuthing and determine how best to communicate

and work with each individual. And you’ll have to have genuine concern for their stake in the

project and the competing needs they face within their own divisions. As the project manager,

it’s your job to bring these issues to light and help the entire group understand them. You should

also present and discuss alternative solutions and bring the group to consensus on a resolution.

Conflict Resolution

But what happens when you can’t reach consensus on a resolution and end up with a conflict

on your hands? Conflict is when the desires, needs, or goals of one person or group are not

in agreement with another. You could throw in the towel and go home, but that’s not rec-

ommended. In all seriousness, withdrawal is a conflict resolution technique—just not a very

effective one. There are five conflict resolution techniques that use different approaches to

solving the issue at hand: forcing, smoothing, compromise, problem solving, and withdrawal.

Of them, problem solving is the best approach and should be used whenever possible. How-

ever, there are times when this technique may not work or may not be appropriate. It’s also

handy to understand these techniques because you’ll be able to easily spot which one other

participants are using and try to steer them into the problem-solving technique. Let’s look

briefly at each of them next.

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