Author and Consultant, Patrick Lencioni writes that it's not technology, finance or strategy that is the ultimate competitive advantage in today's world, its teamwork. This is because authentic teamwork, is so rare and incredibly powerful. So powerful that he says that "if you could get all the people in an organization rowing the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time." That's a bold statement.
In the 2005 March Issue of Harvard Business Review authors Jeff Weiss and Jonathan Hughes examined collaboration and teamwork. They discovered through their work and research that most people avoid collaboration because of a fear of conflict.
However, constructive conflict is not mean spirited, personality focused, interpersonal politics or outright fighting. Instead it's open debate and disagreement that is focused on ideas and concepts. It's using the strength of the collective and their individual talents to come up with the best solution for the situation at hand.
It requires trust, respect and humility, a willingness for people to acknowledge and appreciate others ideas, thought processes and suggestions.
Conflict, rather than take up too much time, actually saves time. Avoiding conflict keeps teams stuck in revisiting old issues over and over again without any resolution and it opens Pandora's Box. If the issues are not being debated within the team you can trust that they are coming out somewhere 'off- line' or at the water cooler.
Leaders often tend to ignore or underestimate the importance of conflict as well as its inevitability.
To encourage open discussions and debate within your team try these three suggestions.
1. Review Cycle of Conflict
Deidre Combs, author of The Way of Conflict, says that there are 4 stages of conflict:
• The appearance of conflict
• The absence of hope
• The occurrence of creativity
• The emergence of stability
To find the dynamic solutions that include a win for all parties means sticking with the discussion through all four stages. Not distancing when suddenly you can't figure out how it could be resolved, but rather hanging in there and trusting that through creative problem solving the answer will be found.
2. Give Permission.
Coach your team to not retreat from conflict or healthy debate. One way to do this is to notice when people are starting to become uncomfortable and bring it up. It may sound odd, but sometimes just stopping for a moment to remind everyone that what they are doing is necessary is a simple way to break the tension. Then resume. Once the meeting has ended remind everyone that the conflict and discussion was valuable and good for the team.
3. Take Action
At your next meeting have someone designated as the 'miner'. This person assumes the role of bringing buried disagreements within the team to light. The person that assumes this role has to have the courage and confidence to name the sensitive issue and then engage the team members to work though it. To do this the person acting as the 'conflict miner' must have a degree of objectivity and a strong sense of commitment to stay with the conflict until resolution. This role ideally is rotated to share the responsibility.
Think in terms of conflict as an opportunity to be seized rather than something to be avoided and you will find that doors open. There is an excitement that comes when people can freely engage in open debate respectfully with trust. This results in an increase of creativity and productivity and ownership among those that participated. There is an old saying, 'no involvement, no commitment.' To involve and gain commitment from those in your business, encourage and create space for constructive conflict.
If you would like a copy of Weiss and Hughes article, "Want Collaboration? Accept- and Actively Manage - Conflict," send us an email with your mailing address. Put 'Conflict Article' in the subject line and we'll get one right to you.
