You might be reading the title and thinking, ‘Isn’t conflict a bad thing?’  

In some cases destructive conflict certainly is. Most would agree that it is difficult for a team to work together effectively if members can’t voice their concerns, disagree with each other, challenge ideas, or highlight where there will be a clash of interests. While it may seem straightforward, managing destructive conflict can be difficult, and these are common ways conflict can arise.

It’s not about avoiding conflict. How we conflict matters. Healthy conflict in a team enables openness, authenticity, critical thinking, and the ability to identify and act on issues and new ideas. When managed well, conflict is beneficial. Crucial even. Let’s explore why. 

The necessary nature of conflict 

Tuckman (1965) outlined ‘Stages of Team Development’ that have stood the test of time. You might know of this as the ‘forming, storming, norming, performing’, framework, with ‘adjourning’ added later. Once a team has been ‘formed’ for a while, people naturally begin to push against established boundaries, and friction begins. While not strictly a linear process, teams are thought to move through a phase of ‘norming’, where members learn to resolve differences, appreciate one another’s strengths, respect each other, and find ways to give and receive constructive feedback. When successful, this kind of productive conflict avoids the personal attacks, politics, and destructive fighting that can too easily emerge when team members work against each other, or when initial disagreements remain unresolved.  

Lencioni (2002) also spoke about conflict in his well-known book ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team’, naming one of the five dysfunctions as a ‘fear of conflict’. He asserts that conflict can be productive when there is a solid sense of trust on all sides. With trust, and a willingness to engage productively in what can feel uncomfortable and even threatening, people can challenge and improve one another’s ideas, enabling even better ideas as a result.  

This means that avoiding conflict in the pursuit of harmony and unrealistic positivity can actually be damaging to teams, despite what we have all been led to believe about the benefits of ‘playing nice’. We have to be willing to share our concerns and questions, engage in difficult conversations, and challenge each other’s thinking. Brene Brown, well known for her work on vulnerability, might well argue that the clarity emerging from this more open communication is a far truer demonstration of kindness.  

Who wouldn’t want to be a part of a high performing team? Where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and all team members are actively collaborating in the achievement of a shared vision. In addition to such teams feeling far more positive, Keller and Meaney (2017) found a 1.9x increased likelihood of having above-median financial performance when the top teams are working together toward a common vision.  Spencer (2001) found that superior teams are 30% more productive than average teams. Want people to perform at their best and stay with the business so they can keep doing it? The answer lies in enabling high-performance teams.  

Of course, for the most part, high performing teams do not simply happen. There are ups and downs. It takes focused effort and time to build understanding, skill, and team processes through targeted, need based development to produce a measurable return on investment.  

The good news is that many have found that positive outcomes can also include higher engagement, better retention, lower stress and burnout, and improved risk mitigation.  It is also likely that such teams will demonstrate greater inclusivity, change agility, and positively influence organisational culture.  

Seems like a pretty clear case. Why is it so hard? 

What goes wrong?

Many senior teams experience conflict that they find difficult to manage, or sometimes even to acknowledge. Often, top teams include a selection of siloed superstars, uneven power dynamics, differing levels of experience, contradictory priorities, challenges aligning under a shared vision of success, and a limited understanding of how to leverage the diverse strengths of the group. This of course is made worse when you add high workloads, stress, and poor emotional control into the mix. Not to mention the very real challenges of actually leading the business and navigating market pressures.

Conflict can build for a myriad of reasons, from differences in values, perspectives and communication styles to real or imagined competition for resources or recognition. It is an inevitable part of the collaborative process. When diverse individuals bring their unique backgrounds, expertise, and viewpoints to a team, clashes can and should be expected. In fact, diversity, along with the differences it can bring, can be hugely positive, if and when that conflict is handled effectively.

In fact, Rock, Grant and Grey (2016) argued that diverse teams ‘feel less comfortable – and that’s why they perform better’. They demonstrate that it’s not the presence of conflict that dictates a team’s success but how that conflict is managed. Further research has shown that in the short-term, homogeneous teams may seem to perform better initially than diverse teams and feel easier to be a part of. However, diverse teams that learn to manage conflict well, who can bring diverse views and approaches together, perform better than homogeneous teams over the longer-term.

Furthermore, Bowers, Pharmer and Salas (2000) found that diverse teams have a particular advantage when dealing with issues and tasks of high complexity. They suggest that highly complex tasks require innovation and creativity of thinking and a diverse team that can navigate conflict is more likely to have these qualities. In today’s world, it’s easy to see how the ability to deal effectively with complexity is important for senior teams.

When it matters

We can’t stop mistakes or conflicts from happening. We don’t want to stop all kinds of failure or disagreement. Where there are people there will be conflicts, and how we respond in the moment matters immensely when creating a sense of safety and team.

When someone behaves aggressively or disrespectfully, do team members work to clarify expectations respectfully, or does it escalate? Do we put our heads down and avoid dealing with the issue? If we do, trust and safety is almost immediately lost. Cynicism grows. Frustrations and conflicting alliances grow. How we deal with behaviour that has a negative impact is just as important as promoting the right behaviours. This isn’t about being nice – it’s about showing respect and having the courage to have the real conversations needed to make it safe for everyone to contribute to progress against goals we are all on board with, even if we need to sort through some respectful disagreement first. It may feel hard in the moment, but explicitly demonstrating a commitment to valuing diverse views and styles is necessary for effectively utilising the talent available in the team.

When someone asks a ‘stupid question’ or doesn’t understand, how do we respond? These are opportunities to either encourage engagement or shut it down. If someone makes a suggestion we don’t like, how open are we to considering it? How often are we in a bad mood and end up taking it out on others? When we are busy and focused, how quickly to we move into telling over asking? While conceptually most people will grasp the importance of being able to speak up and share what you think, it’s easy to miss how many of our day-to-day behaviours make it hard for others. We need to be explicit in communicating our openness and respect.

Efficiency and overall effectiveness are also important here, as multiple conflicts, even when small, can cause members to pursue workarounds that result in deviations from optimal task flow (Park et al. 2020). This is why it is also important for the team to pay attention and to reflect on what works for them and what doesn’t, to plan for success by agreeing on how they will work together and acknowledging mistakes along the way. Individuals may also have to work on how they show up – how many of us dislike conflict so much that we have extreme reactions to even the possibility of it, and then try to blame it on others?

Start with trust and psychological safety 

Without trust, team members are less likely to express differing opinions, or do so less productively or respectfully, negatively impacting critical thinking and promoting a tendency to acquiesce, stick with the status quo and/or avoid disagreement. This undoubtedly damages team climate and outcomes.  

Google’s Project Aristotle found that the most crucial factor for team effectiveness isn’t the collective IQ or the skills of team members. The biggest predictor of all is psychological safety. As defined by Amy Edmondson, this is ‘a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking’ enabling a sense of safety for individuals to express ideas, take risks and show vulnerability without fear of ridicule or reprisal. Psychological safety in teams was found to result in amplified innovation, improved issue resolution, and elevated team efficacy (Edmondson 2009). Bradley et al (2012) also found that psychological safety facilitates the performance benefits of task conflict in teams. If you aren’t sure where to start, even small improvements in psychological safety should help create a foundation for tabling the obstacles that stand in the way of constructive conflict.  You can then consider a number of other key team attributes.  

Research by Steople into high performing teams has shown the following to be both predictors of effective team functioning and targeted areas where practical action can be taken to improve team performance: 

• Trust and Psychological Safety: The ability of team members to demonstrate and engender trust in a genuine and authentic manner and to build high levels of psychological safety. This is the most crucial aspect and ties together each of the below. 

• Direction: Everyone is clear about where the team is going and what it is trying to achieve. 

• Clarity: Clarity of roles and responsibilities and the linkage back to the direction of the team. 

• Balance: A good balance and diversity of capabilities and styles of operating and the ability to leverage those differences. 

• Interdependency: Understanding that the success of the team is dependent on the overlapping responsibilities of each team member 

• Communication: Effective communication systems, processes and styles including team meetings and communication rhythms. This includes working through conflicting views. 

• Commitment: Common commitment to the purpose and direction of the team beyond personal or functional goals and aspirations. 

These factors all help to drive a team towards high performance and they are underpinned by high levels of trust and psychological safety. This type of ‘safe’ environment enables teams to manage conflict in constructive ways. This is similar to the term ‘rumbling’ that was introduced by Brene Brown in her book Dare to Lead (2018). She describes rumbling as ‘engaging in challenging conversations, confronting conflicts, and expressing ourselves honestly without resorting to blame or judgement’.

Nurturing constructive conflict

To summarise, here are some specific actions can you take to build an environment of constructive conflict:

• Promote psychological safety: Leaders must cultivate an environment where team members feel safe to express their thoughts, opinions, and concerns without fear of retribution or ridicule.  There are 3 things a leader can do to help create this environment: 

• Set the scene by encouraging ‘intelligent failures’ and learning from mistakes. 

• Invite engagement by team members by asking broad and deep questions, and by modelling vulnerability and candour. 

• Respond appropriately when team members ask questions, make mistakes, admit vulnerabilities or share failures. 

• Establish ground rules: Begin by setting clear expectations for how conflict should be approached within the team. Encourage respectful dialogue, active listening, and openness to differing opinions. Give everyone the opportunity to contribute. Be careful of those who seek to dominate.  

• Role-model constructive conflict: Leaders should lead by example, demonstrating how to engage in healthy debate and showing how to disagree respectfully. 

• Train conflict skills: Equip your team with the skills and tools they need to engage in healthy conflict. This could include training in active listening, having difficult conversations, giving feedback, and adapting to different needs and communication styles. Team coaching can also allow for the facilitation of real and meaningful dialogue that becomes embedded in how the team communicates.  

• Encourage diverse perspectives: Actively seek out and value different viewpoints. Reward and appreciate alternative thoughts and views. Encourage people to challenge established ways of thinking and working. This diversity of thought can be a powerful catalyst for innovation and problem-solving. 

• Facilitate open communication: Regularly create opportunities for open dialogue, such as in team meetings and feedback sessions, where issues can be discussed openly and constructively. 

• Normalise constructive conflict: Make it clear that conflict is a normal and expected part of working on a team. By normalising it, you reduce the stigma and anxiety associated with expressing dissent. 

• Consider a team-based survey to assess team dynamics, and communication styles, or to directly measure the predictors of high performing teams. Having data to help the group address the differing experiences of team members can be a valuable fast-forward past the usual desire to assume everything is fine.  

Finishing thought

Well managed conflict, particularly in diverse teams dealing with complex and shifting realities, can be argued to be not only an advantage but in our experience, a crucial aspect of high performing senior teams. It may require a consistent commitment to the uncomfortable, and courage to engage in challenging issues and dialogues, but the rewards are great, and well worth the effort.

Whether it is individual capability, team dynamics or organisational behaviours, Steople helps identify the problem and provide commercial solutions based on well-founded psychological principles and academic research.

Our team will help you achieve success through your people. Our job is to help clients create great places to work, which in turn delivers great business outcomes. Contact us today.