In addition to clarifying appropriate conflict behaviors, you might want to define processes or roles that will help you to have more-frequent or more-effective conflict. Cover as much territory as possible to give people a clear picture of what is, and is not, acceptable behavior on your team. Ask your team to define the behaviors that contribute to productive conflict (i.e., conflict that improves decision making while contributing to increased trust) and those that detract from it. By describing the unique value of different perspectives, you encourage those in the minority to raise their voices.Ī third approach to normalizing and encouraging productive conflict is to set ground rules around dissension. I call out those who have this lens and set the expectation that they are going to challenge the team when big ideas are insufficiently thought out or when alignment is only superficial. Team members with minority perspectives should be given the responsibility to speak up if the team’s thinking becomes lopsided.įor example, in my work with dozens of executive teams, I’ve found a dearth of executives who fully appreciate the process-related issues involved in strategy and execution. Pay particular attention if you have one or two styles that are in the minority on your team. As you explore the findings for your team, look for any tensions that might stem from personality-based diversity. In addition to differences stemming from their roles, team members will have different perspectives on an issue based on their personalities. ![]() Second, use a personality or style assessment tool to highlight differences in what people are paying attention to. By taking the time to normalize the tensions that collaborators already feel, you liberate them to disagree, push, pull, and fight hard for the best answer. They are doing their jobs (and being good team players) by advocating in different directions, not by acquiescing. One is fighting to be as responsive as possible to unique customer needs the other fights for the consistency that breeds quality control and cost effectiveness.Īs you work through each role in the team and their different motives, you’ll see the light bulbs going on as people realize, “You mean I’m supposed to fight with that person!” Yes! “And when he’s disagreeing with me, it’s not because he’s a jerk or trying to annoy me?” Right! If the team has the right composition, each member will be fighting for something unique. ![]() When they are doing their jobs well, the sales and production leads should conflict with one another on the path to an optimized solution. The sales person advocates for the exact opposite: more flexibility, customization, and agility. As an example, if you are in a cross-functional meeting with sales and production, the production person might be advocating for more standardization, control, and efficiency. Highlight how the roles are there to drive different agendas. Carve out some team development time to do these exercises before your next contentious discussion.įirst, discuss the different roles in the team and highlight what each role brings to the conversation. I find that three specific techniques help people embrace productive conflict. Unfortunately, our distaste for conflict is so entrenched that encouraging even modest disagreement takes significant effort. ![]() As Walter Lippmann said, “Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.” To maximize the benefit of collaborating, you need to diverge before you converge. ![]() If you avoid disagreeing, you leave faulty assumptions unexposed. Building on one another’s ideas only gets you incremental thinking. If you think beyond the trite clichés, it’s obvious: Collaborating is unnecessary if you agree on everything. Let go of the idea that all conflict is destructive, and embrace the idea that productive conflict creates value. It’s time to change your mindset about conflict. What we need is collaboration where tension, disagreement, and conflict improve the value of the ideas, expose the risks inherent in the plan, and lead to enhanced trust among the participants. There’s no point in collaboration without tension, disagreement, or conflict.
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