Free guide for professors, PIs and group leaders

Where do conflicts come from?

A guide to the seven sources you should know.

Most researchers do not like conflict. This free guide shows you where it actually starts in research teams, with real lab examples, and gives you a simple tool to address tension early, before it eats months of work.

  • The seven sources of conflict, from personal chemistry to weak structures
  • Real situations from research groups, so you can spot the pattern in yours
  • Your first conflict resolution tool: the three step feedback model

Conflict = disagreement + unpleasant emotion

The definition the guide is built on. Once you see it, you spot conflicts much earlier.

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If the download did not start by itself, use the button below. And if a situation in your group keeps coming back, CJ opens a handful of free 30 minute calls after August 19.

Download the guide (PDF) Book your free call with CJ

"They're adults, they should sort it out by themselves."

It is the most common sentence in research leadership. It is also the most expensive one. This guide is for the moment you stop believing it.

Guide cover: Where Do Conflicts Come From? Printable overview of the seven sources of conflict

19 pages, with a printable one page overview for your next team meeting.

What is inside

  1. Interpersonal liking or rejection
  2. Different goals and approaches
  3. Power and control
  4. Different norms and values
  5. Language and communication
  6. Access to information
  7. Organisational weakness

Plus your first tool

The three step feedback model: state what you observed, state its impact, state the future behaviour you expect. Simple enough to use tomorrow morning.

2 yearsOne real case from the guide

That is how long one publication was delayed because a predoc kept data from a colleague. Conflicts in research groups rarely explode. They leak time, energy and results, quietly. Spotting the source early is the cheapest fix you will ever make.

CJ Fitzsimons, founder of Leadership Sculptor

The person behind the guide

CJ Fitzsimons, PhD, founder of Leadership Sculptor, has been coaching research leaders since 1999. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from Trinity College Dublin and spent over 15 years in R&D, including as Research Programme Director at ABB.

Since 2016 his team has been the lead partner for delivering EMBO lab leadership trainings internationally. Clients include leading research institutes across Europe and North America, as well as Airbus, BASF, Bayer and Daimler.

Prefer to talk it through?

CJ is back from his summer break on August 19 and is opening a handful of free 30 minute calls. Bring one real conflict from your group and leave with your next move.

Book your call with CJ

Only a few slots open. First come, first served.