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Dealing confidently with conflicting goals

By Sabine Walter
04 Feb 2025

As a manager, you are often faced with the challenge of juggling different goals that are not always in harmony with each other. These conflicts of objectives can occur at different levels: Personally, between members of your own team, between different departments or your own objectives are at odds with the company's objectives. How can you best deal with this? What options are there for reducing or resolving the tension?

Team tries to solve conflicting goals using ideas written on post-its
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Management Summary

Conflicting objectives weaken the productivity of organisations. They should therefore be avoided. If this is not possible, you can reduce the tension of the conflict by taking the following steps:

  • Analysing the conflict level
  • Variabilisation of the target factors
  • Utilisation of collective intelligence to develop various possible solutions
  • Decision as to which of the solution options comes closest to the original objective, taking into account the circumstances

Conflicting goals in day-to-day management: practical example

As Head of Product Development, you will be required to give new impetus to your company's innovative strength. Within the next two years, you will be expected to further develop your company's core products technologically in such a way that they stand out from the market and open up new target groups. In order to achieve this goal, you would like to fill two vacancies and enter into a co-operation with a research institute. However, the budget for this is not approved. "You know we have to make savings in view of the critical earnings situation."

Many managers are familiar with this or a similar situation. Conflicting goals are part of their everyday life. The question arises: What options are there to minimise or resolve the conflict of objectives? I present one approach.

approach to solving conflicting goals

In my experience, managers often try to deal with conflicting goals, their anger about them and finding possible solutions on their own. They deserve credit for caring about their team, but the chance of resolution increases if they involve others. What can this look like?

Analysing the conflict level

Conflicting objectives usually exist on these three levels: Feasibility, meaningfulness and compatibility with values. Analyse on which level or levels the main conflict exists.

In our example, the primary conflict is on the Feasibility. The feasibility of the goal that the division manager is supposed to achieve is jeopardised by a lack of resources.

Variabilisation of the individual target factors

Once you have worked out the main conflict level, the objective can be broken down into its individual factors. In our example, these are

  • the core products,
  • technological development,
  • the schedule,
  • the USP on the market,
  • the target group.

Solution-focussed questions can be used to redefine the various factors. The area manager could ask the following questions, among others:

  • What is the minimum customer benefit required to inspire a new target group?
  • What is the minimum customer benefit required to achieve a USP on the market?
  • Which of the core products can be further developed technologically with the available resources in such a way that it generates a USP?

Solution development using collective intelligence

In order to answer the various questions and develop solution options based on the available resources, managers are best advised to utilise the intelligence of their team or teams. Use the expertise of different people to find a solution that is feasible.

Checklist for avoiding conflicts of interest

  • Set realistic goals.
  • Ensure a transparent target-setting process.
  • Make sure that goals are complementary, i.e. that they pay into each other. Use the OKR method, for example.
  • Formulate goals clearly and unambiguously to avoid room for interpretation
  • Check the objectives on three levels: Feasibility, meaningfulness, compatibility with corporate values.
  • Encourage employees and managers to point out conflicts of interest at an early stage. Take this information seriously.

Conclusion: Conflicting objectives cannot be resolved, but their tension can be minimised

Conflicting objectives weaken the productivity of organisations. They should therefore be avoided. If this is not possible, you can reduce the tension of the conflict by using a three-stage approach:

  • Analyse the conflict level
  • Variabilising target factors
  • Using collective intelligence to find solutions

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