Managing Team Conflict

In my last blog post, I addressed Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the first of which is an absence of trust. The second, the subject of this article, is fear of conflict. Trust is vital, because when people who don’t trust one another engage in passionate debate, they are often focused on trying to win the argument. They are usually not listening to the other person’s ideas because they are figuring out how to manipulate the conversation to get what they want.

While many people studiously avoid it, conflict is unavoidable and quite normal. If you are interacting with other people, there will inevitably be some type of conflict, be it a disagreement or a differing opinion on how to handle something in your office or interpersonal friction. The key is how conflict is dealt with. If team members are never pushing one another outside their emotional comfort zones during discussions, then it is quite likely they’re not making the best decisions for the organization.

Teams that fear conflict and avoid it:

–  Will have boring meetings.

–  Create an environment where back-channel politics and personal attacks thrive.

–  Ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success.

–  Fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of team members.

–  Waste time and energy with posturing and interpersonal risk management.

Healthy conflict can only happen if vulnerability-based trust exists. Then you and your team can engage in productive, ideological conflict where passionate, unfiltered debate around ideas of importance to the team flourishes. Any team that wants to maximize its effectiveness needs to learn to do this. The fear of occasional personal conflict should not deter a team from having regular, productive debates.

Mastering Conflict—Key Points

–  Healthy conflict among team members requires trust, which is all about engaging in unfiltered, passionate debate around issues.

–  Even among the best teams, conflict will at times be uncomfortable. We need to act in the face of discomfort to be truly effective and achieve team goals. 

–  Conflict norms must be discussed and made clear among the team.

Your Role as a Leader

You must be willing to be vulnerable by taking risks and set an example that it is OK to not be perfect.Effective leaders also regularly mine for conflict, ie, be aware of disagreements and encourage open discussion about them. When mining for conflict, push for specifics, clarity, and closure.

Set ground rules for healthy debate—for example, no personal attacks. Keep all discussion focused on the root cause of a problem or opportunity for improvement. Face challenging issues head-on; unlike some fine wines and cheeses, problems don’t get better with age!

Encourage creative thinking and in a brainstorming session and resist the urge to critique potential solutions. Often the kooky early session ideas become great ideas with some massaging. Have fun in these meetings and even consider a prize for craziest idea with the team voting. Make the prize something silly. Again, have fun as a team.

In summary, be proactive and turn conflict and disagreements into positive, open discussions around ideas and your practice will thrive and the morale of your team will be enhanced.

About the Author

Frank Manfre, BS is Key Account Manager for Ivoclar Vivadent based in Atlanta. He has over 12 years of experience in the dental market and has worked as an executive in both profit and non-profit corporations. He serves as a business coach and consultant focused on building highly effective teams, leadership development, strategic planning, and business development. He serves on the board for the Georgia Dental Laboratory Association and is a regular contributor to the Journal of Dental Technology and Inside Dental Technology magazine on the topic of business management.