Conflict. Some people thrive on it, while others avoid it at all costs. It has a bad reputation and is often seen as something we must ‘deal with’ as leaders.
We see conflict as the natural process of working together with others, the process by which ideas are tested, solutions are created, and innovation is born. We see conflict as an essential process in a high-performing team.
This article will examine why and how you can create positive tension to foster innovation in your team and make conflict part of your company culture.
Avoid a Conflict-Avoidant Team
Many leaders make the mistake of thinking, “My team has no conflict. We are succeeding!” But if there isn’t conflict, the right conversations are not happening, and you may have a conflict-avoidant team.
6 Signs You Have A Conflict Avoidant Team
- Frequent “Offline” Discussions: When even minor discomfort arises in meetings, someone suggests “taking it offline,” resulting in the “meeting-after-the-meeting” phenomenon where unresolved issues are discussed privately.
- Overloaded Priority Lists: Leaders avoid saying “no” to requests, leading to bloated priority lists that dilute focus and effectiveness.
- Unaddressed Poor Performance: Managers create workarounds for unproductive team members rather than addressing performance issues directly, causing inefficiency and resentment.
- Resentment and Frustration: Team members avoid direct communication and let frustrations simmer rather than working through issues constructively.
- Risk Aversion and Siloed Work: Teams avoid risks, keep information within siloes, and miss out on the cross-functional collaboration that can drive innovation.
- Unspoken Concerns in Plans: Teams fail to address risks or assumptions in plans because members fear triggering conflict. This results in flawed strategies that can slow progress.
Don’t Take On Conflict Debt
We begin to take on “conflict debt” when we brush past conflict. The team may be able to move on, but the conflict will not go away.
And if you’ve ever purchased a house or played Monopoly, you know debt builds up over time if we don’t put payments against it, incurring interest until it reaches a breaking point that even the most robust team can’t stop.
We recommend instilling a positive view of conflict in your team by:
- Emphasizing past times when conflict led to a breakthrough or new solution. Highlight when the conflict was healthy and helpful.
- Encourage team members to not let conflict sit for more than 48 hours. This will ensure your team does not continuously accumulate conflict debt, and remember conflict is cumulative. Wherever you record behaviour expectations, write out a process for dealing with conflict within a given timeframe.
- Empower leaders to handle conflict in their teams with practical training in conflict management and new strategies in their leadership toolbelt.
When we wait until the next team meeting or for things to get to a critical level, we will be working on cumulative conflict and not just the single issue at hand and addressing it in a negative light as it has become unavoidable.
Conflict Resolution: Using the Ladder of Inference
This tool should be part of every leader’s toolkit and every team’s High-Performance Team (HPT) learning journey. Once you can align team members on the level of disconnect, you can begin working on the conflict.
How to Use The Ladder of Inference
First, you must determine whether it is an individual or team issue. While an individual issue can be addressed one-on-one, a team issue will require an entirely different approach.
Then, you need to identify if it’s a relationship or task issue and what the underlying root cause may be. This will guide you through the entire process and give you a clear focus.
You can use The Ladder of Inference by guiding team members “up or down” the ladder to identify where their perceptions align or diverge. The Ladder is based on Chris Argyris’ idea that conflict arises when we interpret “observable data” and then bring those up the ladder until they inform our beliefs and actions. According to Chris, we don’t look too closely at how factual our steps up the ladder are.
When you have two teams or individuals, you can assess where on the ladder they are misaligned and how they either need to move up or down the ladder to get on the same rung and talk through the issue by asking open-ended questions like:
- “What specific observations led you to this conclusion?”
- “What alternative interpretations could exist for the same data?”
- “How does this belief shape your actions toward others?”
- How have past experiences shaped your perceptions or conclusions?”
Walking Down the Ladder
Walking “down” involves examining initial observations and assumptions and helping team members uncover biases or misunderstandings.
- Step 1: Identify Observable Data – What was seen, heard, or experienced?
- Step 2: Challenge Assumptions – What assumptions were made about this data? Are there alternative explanations?
- Step 3: Revisit Meanings – Is there a shared understanding of what this data represents?
Stepping Up the Ladder
Stepping “up” the ladder encourages team members to form conclusions and take actions that are carefully aligned with shared objectives and grounded in observed facts rather than assumptions.
Building a Positive Attitude Towards Conflict
Every team will experience conflict, and it will be up to the individuals, empowered by their leaders, to see harmful conflict that needs resolution and positive tension between people, teams and ideas that need to be part of the culture of innovation and creativity.
Not All Conflict is Positive
Don’t fall into the trap of labelling any conflict as helpful. Instead, be present to help nurture positive conflict that feels like tension between two points. Stay with it to see what it delivers for your team.
Tension vs Conflict
Tension is the energy that feeds the process through which conflict creates innovation.
Tension is healthy and stretches cognitive and creative outputs, while conflict is a breakdown that must be resolved.
The first step is to normalize and de-personalize the process of tension so it does not trigger teammates. There needs to be rules around introducing tension to keep it positive. For example, you can outline any of these in your operating norms:
- Focus on Ideas, Not People
- Clarify the Objective
- Define Boundaries
- Timebox the Discussion
- Encourage Active Listening
- Use a Facilitator When Needed
- End with Actionable Outcomes
- Celebrate the Process
Tension means we are stretching, pushing forward, and leaning in. To maximize the impact of positive tension, we need to ensure we have stretched and are limber. Having clear ‘ways of working’ and aligning with what safe spaces look like for the team will ensure we enter the tension with curiosity, mercy and courage.
Great teams embrace conflict as an opportunity to grow. This can only be done if a foundation of trust is built first and well-defined norms are in place. Once you have incorporated tension into your culture, you will witness happier relationships, improved problem-solving and more efficient communication.
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