Mining for Conflict to Cultivate Effective Collaboration
“Conflict is not only endemic but, if it is constructive, desirable in teams.”
The vision of an effective team as a perennially happy, continually content and satiated entity is, at best, folly. Even the highest performing teams experience conflict, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Teams are typically multidisciplinary, with members bringing diverse skill sets to the table; ideally, these skills complement those of their colleagues and have been introduced to help achieve the team’s objective(s).
But with that diversity comes different cultures, personal identities, professional practices and priorities.
Unifying a diverse group of individuals into a cohesive team is a continual underlying challenge for any leader, and an appreciation of managing conflict – a capability that isn’t pre-wired in any of us – is a valuable tool to possess.
Conflicts will occur at any point in a project lifecycle or the running of an organisation of any size, and accepting this inevitability and building one’s personal resilience to manage it will support any effective leader.
Likewise, it’s not uncommon for teams to occasionally lose sight of their focus and objectives, something which itself can cause conflict or be the result of conflict itself.
Regular, timely refreshers of strategic intent (the Primary Purpose) is often a simple yet positive step to ensure everyone is on track and the direction of the team is cohesive: remember why we are here, what we are trying to accomplish and that we are a team.
This is especially pertinent with hybrid working or teams who are physically spread across different geographical locations or departments within an organisation.
This potential for losing sight is multiplied in joint ventures when teams comprise members from different organisations, often with equally different operational practices and commercial agendas.
Whilst conflict within teams can be contentious, they can also be a catalyst for both individuals and their colleagues, and even stimulate fresh impetus into the task at hand.
Some – ourselves included – suggest that conflict within a team is courageous and actually necessary to ensure all points of view and opinions (project focused, of course) are brought to the table and taken into account.
Causes of Conflict in Teams
Taking a high-level view, conflict within teams can be broadly considered intra-group or organisational, which can then be delineated as the following areas:
Before we do, and to clarify, we consider a ‘team’ reverts to being merely a ‘group’ when conflict remains unaddressed, hence the use of ‘intra-group’ rather than ‘intra-team’.
Intra-Group Conflict:
- Task conflict arises from differences in views, approach and ideas, and can even be disagreements around the specific requirements and understanding of the task itself. Keeping task conflict isolated can prove less destructive and minimises the risk of becoming personal or losing sight of the project focus (Primary Purpose).
- Relationship conflict involves differences concerning individual preferences, attitudes, personal and interpersonal styles. It has the potential to be the most destructive and damaging for teams with negativity and hostility stemming from personal dislikes proving an unnecessary and unwanted distraction.
- Process conflict typically arises when the ‘how’ of accomplishing a task is challenged, whether it’s the allocation and division of activities, or the responsibilities and strategies deployed. If not carefully managed, process conflict can escalate and draw both task conflict and relationship conflict into its orbit, with personal opinion (including jealousy and envy) concerning role delegation and logistics fostering intra-group conflict.
Organisational Conflict:
- The social hierarchy within a group can often be a source of status conflict. There is potential for this to lead to power struggles with little interest in actual outcomes and is actually linked to personal achievement, social standing or role function.
- An organisation itself can be a significant cause of conflict which may adversely affect the performance of a team. It is not uncommon to find that experience, knowledge, processes and procedures along with values and purpose of an organisation to be at odds with its own personnel let alone that of collaborators in joint venture projects.
Mining for Conflict and the Importance of Trust
“Constructive team conflict can be a source of excellence, quality and creativity… whilst at the same time, conflict in teams can be interpersonally destructive and lead to poor team performance or the break up of a team.” Carsten K. W. De Dreu; Evert Van de Vliert
‘Mining for conflict’ (Patrick Lencioni, ‘Five Dysfunctions of a Team’) is an approach which accepts that healthy conflict within a team can be very positive, but only if the team trusts one another.
A team with a culture where trust is embedded is one where passionate debate can be facilitated, even encouraged, with great advances made. If that trust doesn’t exist then people will naturally retreat from open debate, or their involvement may not be completely honest.
Suppressed people easily revert to destructive behaviour – distrust, resentment, gossip – with the project suffering or even becoming fatally wounded as a consequence.
“Trust is a key to gaining the benefits of task conflict without suffering the costs of relationship conflict” according to observations by Simons and Peterson in their paper published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
Whilst this trust in each other is crucial, so trust in the leader must also be present – trust that when they are mining for conflict, it is for the greater good of the project or organisation rather than for personal gain or betterment.
Mitigating Conflict in Teams
Of course, if a team is performing well without conflict then let’s not pick up our shovel and start mining for the sake of it. If we can avoid conflict by managing to keep everyone on-board then our collective energies can be focused on the tasks ahead of us.
Following are some recommendations that Acorn suggest for leaders in order to mitigate or avoid conflict within your team:
Be Proactive
Conflict often starts relatively small but can escalate fast. Leaving someone out of an email chain, making an inappropriate off-the-cuff remark, speaking over people in a meeting – all relatively minor, but they can all lead to resentment and ensuing conflict. Remind your team of expected behaviours and lead by example.
Should you spot conflict, avoid delegating it to other team members or passing-on to HR to resolve: you are the leader so take action. This shows that you treat conflict seriously and won’t condone this potentially destructive behaviour.
Observe
Signs of conflict can be subtle, but you can detect them by being aware of the interactions within your team. Conflict might be reflected in individuals’ body language, facial expressions, or tone of voice.
The better you know your team members the more easily you’ll pick up on cues and spot tensions that may be lurking under the surface.
As well as the specific details of the conflict, keep in mind that you may need to consider if competing values and individual aspirations are contributing to the tension.
By developing your own emotional intelligence, the better placed you are to identify and manage the emotions of your team members.
Be Fair and Impartial
Even if you agree with one side or the other in a conflicting team, make sure that you remain objective. Your role is to address the issue causing the conflict and to reach a solution that works for all parties, not to merely decide who is right and who is wrong.
Treat each person fairly. Give everyone the time and opportunity to present their own perspective and to respond to any criticism. It’s vital that all parties can state their case and are listened to.
Step in When Needed
Meetings are a common breeding ground for conflict. Don’t allow individuals to hijack conversations or to dominate their more-reserved colleagues. If one person is constantly talking over others, keep your questions directed at the person(s) being interrupted.
If people still attempt to interrupt, politely ask them to wait until their colleague has finished before inviting their point of view.
Avoid Assumptions
When facilitating a conflict discussion, avoid stating as facts things that you only think you know or may have heard. For example, it’s best to use phrases like, “As far as I’m aware,” or, “As I understand it…”
This allows for the possibility that your understanding is wrong or incomplete, and creates an opportunity for the conflicting parties to restate their cases and clarify misunderstandings. In doing so, they themselves may have the opportunity to reflect on their standpoint with fresh eyes and find resolution between themselves.
Purposeful Meetings Help Avoid Conflict
In our article from mid-2023, ‘The 30-Minute Meeting Challenge’, we looked at some of the causes for bad meetings and, reflecting back on this, suggest that the four points outlined can be a cause of disharmony and, ultimately, conflict:
- 30-minute meetings – who hasn’t been part of an over-lengthy meeting, feeling disgruntled or even downright angry at time being wasted?
- Include only the people who really need to be there – are team members there just to make up numbers, can they contribute to the discussion?
- Everyone is given equal opportunity to participate – if you are required to be at the meeting, then you should be involved and your input heard.
- And only attend the meeting if it’s necessary – are we simply meeting for meeting’s sake or out of habit?
In Conclusion
Conflict is going to occur, it’s in our nature. What’s in our gift is how we manage that conflict, how we manage those overwhelmed in the turmoil and ensure projects are kept on-track and personnel kept on-board.
None of us want to play the autocratic leader lording over a submissive team, both judge and jury determining the binary right or wrong.
Complex projects demand diverse skill sets and draw personnel from across the whole organisation and/or third party contractors to make up a joint venture.
Leadership style is key to successful management and, more than ever, authentic leadership will manage destructive conflict whilst helping cultivate the creative, courageous and constructive conflict that is part of a healthy, high performing team.
Article References:
“Constructive team conflict can be a source of excellence, quality and creativity… whilst at the same time, conflict in teams can be interpersonally destructive and lead to poor team performance or the break up of a team.” Carsten K. W. De Dreu; Evert Van de Vliert (Using Conflict in Organisations, 1997)
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Using_Conflict_in_Organizations/OzDFwuWH5BMC?hl=en&gbpv=0
“Freed from the burden of unexpressed emotions, people will become more likely to work on the problem.” – Getting to Yes; Roger Fisher, William Ury
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_Yes
If Your Team Agrees on Everything, Working Together Is Pointless – Liane Davey, Harvard Business Review 2017
https://hbr.org/2017/01/if-your-team-agrees-on-everything-working-together-is-pointless
The Paradox of Intragroup Conflict: A Meta-Analysis – Frank R. C. de Wit, Leiden University; Lindred L. Greer, University of Amsterdam; Karen A. Jehn, University of Melbourne
(Journal of Applied Psychology 2012, Vol. 97; American Psychological Association)
Task Conflict and Relationship Conflict in Top Management Teams: The Pivotal Role of Intragroup Trust – Tony Simons, Cornell University; Randall Peterson, London Business School (Journal of Applied Psychology, February 2000)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12575274_
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