Practical Conflict Resolution Strategies for Group Practice Owners: How to Handle Workplace Disagreements

Because pretending everything is fine only works until it's not.

Let me take you back to a day that started like any other. The birds were chirping, the coffee was brewing, the Taylor Swift album was playing in the background as I was getting into my emails, and I was gungho to tackle a busy day.

Cut to mid-morning when I walked into the break room. BOOM. A full-on passive-aggressive explosion between two of my team members over something as monumental as… a lost stapler (not legit, but close enough).

Now, if you’ve ever been a practice owner for more than a week, you know exactly what I’m talking about. What started as a minor disagreement quickly escalated into a mess that needed to be untangled before it spread like wildfire.

Conflict? It’s inevitable. [I’ll be honest with you - it’s actually one of my favorite things (not because I like conflict, but a positive outcome is incredible)]. However, letting your workplace turn into a toxic mess? That’s a non-option.

How Unresolved Conflict Can Harm Your Group Practice

Here’s the real deal: unresolved conflict is like mold.

At first, you hardly even notice its there. Maybe it shows up in the form of a snide comment during a meeting or a weird vibe when someone walks into the room. You sort of see it happen and walk away questioning, “Did I make that up? Is that ‘enough’ to address? How did that just happened?” Give it enough time, and suddenly that mold-you’re-not-sure-is-mold is creeping up the walls, threatening to ruin everything you’ve worked for.

In group practices, where different personalities, stress levels, and professional demands collide daily, conflicts can pop up regularly.

Maybe someone feels their workload is heavier than their co-worker’s. Maybe one person’s clinical approach rubs another the wrong way. Or, maybe it’s just that weird tension that builds up when people don’t communicate well.

It’s so damn easy for these small issues to snowball into full-blown problems if they’re ignored. And if left unchecked, they will eventually affect everything - from team morale to client outcomes, and even employee retention rates.

Let me just recap and consolidate what I’m trying to say.

Conflict that isn’t handled well creates a toxic environment. It kills team cohesion, drains productivity, and often sends your best people packing.

Recognizing Early Warning Signs of Conflict in Your Practice

Okay, so how do you stop a minor disagreement from spiraling into drama central? Easy enough - you’ve just got to learn to recognize the early signs of brewing conflict. Most of the time, there’s tension long before there’s an actual blow-up.

Here are a few tell-tale signs:

• passive-aggressive behavior (those “harmless” little comments that aren’t actually harmful because passive aggressiveness is barely-veiled contempt)

• a noticeable drop in someone’s engagement or enthusiasm in one or all facets of their role

• a shift in group dynamics (might be subtle or obvious) - like a team member starting to avoid others

• Increased gossip or back-channeling.

The trick is to catch the issue before it gets hella out of control.

Conflict avoidance, while tempting, is not a solution.

If you’ve ever said, “I’m just going to wait and see if this blows over,” you’re probably doing it wrong. Trust me, it won’t blow over - it’ll blow up. And when that happens, you’re the one stuck cleaning up the mess.*

*As an important caveat, there’s not enough space to talk through the nuance of conflict, individual context, roles and role alignment, and so much more related to conflict. This whole post is based on the assumption that we’re talking about actual conflict issues. Decoding the intensity of conflict is another post for another day (or multiple posts).

Proven Conflict Resolution Strategies for Practice Owners

Now, let’s get to the good stuff: how to actually resolve conflicts once they’ve surfaced. Because yes, it’s possible to turn things around without pulling your hair out (or firing all your employees, which would be awful).

1. Create a Safe Space for Dialogue

This probably sounds so trite, but it’s really that important. The first step is getting the involved parties to talk it out in a safe and neutral environment and to have them talk directly. The space must be one where there is no blame games, no judgment, no criticism, and no “well, if you would just…” The intention here is to create an honest conversation about whatever the issue may be, including identifying what the actual issue is! As the leader, your job is to facilitate this. Your role absolutely is not to pick sides (assuming there’s not anything egregious happening), but to guide the conversation.

2. Listen Before You Speak

This one seems basic, but it’s harder than it sounds. Even for mental health providers, this is hard. Before jumping in with solutions or responses, each person should have enough space and time to fully discuss their concerns regarding the issue. Additionally, each person should be able to paraphrase what the other person’s stance is. This isn’t so that they agree - this is to ensure all parties fully understand where the other is coming from before moving on to solutions. The key here is empathy. You don’t have to agree with everyone, but you do need to understand where they’re coming from.

3. Find Common Ground

Once everyone has spoken their piece and paraphrased the other person’s, now (and only now) can we focus on finding some common ground. Often, just being heard and actually hearing the other person can decrease the tension and help people relax back into a more settled state of being (internally and with the other). But it’s not uncommon that there’s an actual issue to be solved, and this is there the focus shifts to finding common ground. Even in the most heated arguments, there’s something both sides can agree on. Use that as the foundation for moving forward. Then, work together to brainstorm solutions that benefit the team as a whole, not just one or two people, and seek to solve the identified issue forever.

4. Set Clear Boundaries and Expectations

Whatever solution you land on, make sure everyone knows what’s expected of them moving forward. Get super clear about boundaries and roles. Ideally, you’re just reiterating the roles and/or offering some clarity to an aspect of it that wasn’t clear. Regardless, shore up any loose, floating tendrils and make sure every single person is on the same page, as well as identify any type of communication that needs to go to other folks on the team (if others are impacted by the solution). By getting very clear on what’s expected and how a process flows, there’s very little room for future misunderstandings.

Building a Conflict-Resilient Team Culture in Your Group Practice

Here’s the truth: conflict resolution doesn’t start when an issue blows up. It starts long before that, by creating a culture where open communication is the norm.

If your team feels safe to speak up early, you’ll have fewer meltdowns later on. Simple as that.

Some ways to foster this:

• encourage and engage in regular check-ins
  Make it a habit for your team to share how they’re feeling. This prevents issues from simmering under the surface.

• expect and promote direct feedback
  Teach your team how to give and receive feedback in a way that’s constructive, not destructive, and with candor. Directness shouldn’t be harsh (one absolutely can exist without the other), and it can save you a lot of headaches.

• set clear expectations
  Everyone on the team should know their role and what’s expected of them within that role. Additionally, they should know others’ roles and how their role fits into the larger ecosystem that is your practice. Clarity kills confusion, and confusion breeds conflict.

Why Managing Conflict Proactively Is Key to a Healthy Work Environment

Here’s a not-so-harsh reality: conflict in your practice is unavoidable. It’s okay, though! Conflict isn’t innately bad. It just means that there’s some friction between two entities - something isn’t laying flush and it’s our job to figure out wheere the misalignment is.

With that said, you get to choose how it’s handled and, as much as I love humans, we can handle conflict poorly.

With the right strategies and a proactive mindset, you can shift disagreements into opportunities for growth instead of letting them drag your practice down.

And hey, if you’re tired of feeling like you’re constantly playing referee between your team members, we’ve got a resource for that.

The Practice Culture First Membership includes tools and strategies specifically designed to help practice owners like you create a conflict-resilient, thriving team culture.
Join the membership now and start managing conflict with confidence.

About the Author

Dr. Tara Vossenkemper is a candid (and kind) consultant who’s been in the trenches of group practice ownership for over five years. With a hearty blend of depth, irreverence, and a solid dash of humor (or so she hopes), Tara helps practice owners navigate the can-be-messy process of hiring, culture-building, vision generating, people-y issues, and all the other things that keep you up at night. When she’s not consulting, she’s probably wrangling her farm animals or homeschooling her kids—because why not add more chaos to the mix?

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