Conflict Resolution Template

I recently had to deal with conflict within a team I was leading as a Scrum Master.

I wrote the below as a framework for the team to work together to resolving their problems, while remaining independent of interference from Senior Managers.


Hi all,

As an outcome of what was raised in our sprint retrospective, I’d like to facilitate (with x’s help) a meeting with the necessary people to help the team work together in a way that gets work done quickly, and more importantly makes each team member feel valued and respected.

I know that there are frustrations within the team, and I’m glad that some of these have been raised so that we can work to improve as a team. I feel the best way for this to happen is to have an open, honest and respectful discussion together, face to face.

I’m proposing the following as a framework for this meeting – if there’s anything you think is wrong in here, please let me know and we can discuss /change what I’ve proposed.

·      This meeting will be a safe place to discuss the problems between team members

o   No notes will be taken of the details of the discussion – only of the outcomes to move the team forward

o   Once we’ve discussed what’s caused problems, we’ll leave it behind us and move past it

o   There will be no ‘reporting back’ to the Management Team. We can provide them with the outcomes we’ve reached.

·        It is for the team (and those in the room) to deal with these issues

o   Where we need help from others, we could feature this as part of our outcomes

·        The outcomes will be for us to find a way to work in future which will:

o   use all team member’s expertise

o   value each persons’ contribution

o   be respectful of each other

o   be efficient in collaboration

·       There will be clear boundaries of everyone’s roles within these outcomes

·          Everyone will get to have their say – and not be interrupted while they’re doing so

I would like to hear the following from each of the team members affected:

·          Explain the problems you’ve had with working together

·         What happened that you weren’t happy with

·        What you’d like to happen differently in future to improve things