Why successful teams embrace conflict
An explorative reflection what makes a team successful — 5 learnings
For me, the team & people I work with play a huge part in how I perceive my work-life situation. If I work in a true team, who is building on each other and delivering high-quality outcomes, I love my job.
But if the team is dysfunctional, I dread going to work. Even on teams with the majority being individually smart and senior people, it sometimes feels disconnected — with mediocre outcomes at best. I was wondering. Since seniority doesn’t seem to be the issue, which impact drivers make the difference? Always aiming at enjoying my work life as much as possible, I went on an explorative adventure:
How might we as a team
- impact our team dynamic positively
so that
- we can deliver excellent performance (quality & quantity)
- through collaborative synergies
- while having a lot of fun?
Here is what I have learned!
Learning 1: Conflict is a substantial success driver for your team and project — if handled correctly.
“Nobody ever gets married before they’ve had a fight. And if you can resolve the fight, then you can start to trust each other ”. (Susan Wheelan)
This quote is not from Dating 101 but one of the gurus on teamwork — Susan Wheelan. Disagreement, and the ability to resolve it, leads to trust. Trust leads to psychological safety. And that is the most important success driver to create successful team performance according to a study by Google.
If conflict is handled poorly, it often feels like an atomic bomb just went off in the middle of your work life. Your mood suffers. The motivation suffers. And with it, work quality.
Great teams, therefore, invest in their team dynamic, before everything else, to be prepared for what is to come.
Though it might make some people impatient to hold off on output production, it is more expensive to fix a broken team. Most of the time, it is only possible by removing people from the team. It costs valuable time, quality and money.
Teams can only utilise their potential if the individual feels comfortable to share their thoughts and disagree productively. Therefore, awareness of why conflict occurs and how to handle it is essential knowledge for all team members.
Learning 2: There are 3 reasons people experience conflict — Task, Process and Interpersonal Disagreement.
Task Conflict — What are we doing?
Task conflict means awareness that you disagree which problem should be solved. It includes your desired goals & purpose (outcome) and deliverables (output). So why is it good? The synthesis of diverse perspectives is needed to produce high-quality decisions. But be careful: Do not get stuck in your discussions. Be structured:
- Hear the arguments
- Define evaluation criteria.
- Define who and how makes the final decision.
The goal is always to make an informed decision that doesn’t interfere with quality. Otherwise, you end up with a mediocre outcome. And people engage in unnecessary relationship conflict, starting to take things personally.
Process conflict — How are we doing it?
Process conflict is about how you approach the problem to solve. It includes the definition of roles & responsibilities, as well as chosen methodologies or resources to utilise. If your team is not clear on the structure, it very likely gets distracted from the actual task. It causes them to work less effectively and produce suboptimal products. Hence, it is important to clarify early on what structures everyone is going to follow. Ideally, transparency and alignment on processes are given at every moment during the project for every team member.
Relationship conflict — Who are you currently at odds with?
Relationship conflict is your awareness of every tension or friction you have ever experienced in a team. When team members get wound up in personal issues or feelings — such as annoyance, frustration, and irritation — they ultimately create additional unnecessary task or process conflict.
Team members, hence, need empathy for each other to keep relationship conflict low — especially in stressful times.
Empathy is what keeps the communication lines open at any time. It also keeps conversations solution-oriented, not personal.
To keep feedback, criticism and disagreement constructively, team members need to remember asking “why”.
- Why someone acts a certain way.
- Why someone shares an opinion.
- Why someone disagrees with you.
- And then listen actively to the answer.
Furthermore, appreciation of the individual goes a long way. If you feel appreciated by someone, you will be more open to appreciating his criticism.
Learning 3: Clarifying team & project structure first makes you more successful.
As mentioned, invest in your team dynamic and project set up before you start creating.
The content & process model shows the difference between a successful and a failed project. The successful project spends enough time setting up, structuring the process, defining culture and identifying which outcome they want to achieve. Only then do they focus on creating content and output.
It is, furthermore, matched by the team’s development cycle.
There are many models describing team dynamics or its life cycle. No matter which one you chose, they all have certain things in common:
- In the beginning, everyone plays nice. They want to belong to the group and not offend anyone early on.
- Then, people start to discuss which problem should be solved (task conflict) and how to approach it (process). The synthesis of different opinions will create a thought-through choice. The discussion also helps the individual to place itself within the team dynamic.
- The successful solution of the disagreement leads to trust — and if no one throws a curveball — productivity and high-performance.
- And if the team keeps working on their communication & empathy skills, course-correcting their goals and purpose, optimise their process, they might even achieve high performance.
The first two steps are the important ones. Here, the team experiences how it will handle any future conflict. The teams’ task and the process should be defined. Trust and empathy can be developed.
Learning 4: Focusing on the relevant impact driver helps to kick off the team.
The easiest way to fast-track an effective start, in my experience, is by having a Team (not just project) Kick off. During the team kick off I focus on a set of impact drivers which will create structure and clarity. Hence, prevent unnecessary conflict of all kinds.
Task-related
- Purpose and Goals (Business & personal) → What problem to solve/outcome to create.
- Strength, Assets, Weaknesses & Risks → What gaps to anticipate, what assets are there?
Process-related
- Roles & Responsibilities → Who does what and why?
- Methodologies & Tools → What process procedures to follow?
- Communication structures → Which ways of working define the team?
Relationship-related
- Values and Expectations → What culture should the team live in?
- Get to know each other → What do we have in common that helps them bond and trust each other?
How a team kick-off works
- When I personally design a Team Kick-Off, I usually start with a team check-in.
- Check-ins are a valuable tool to encourage people to open up, create empathy and set the tone.
- Then, I walk them through the team canvas and let the team members decide the team design.
- To discuss purpose and goals effectively, the business sponsor often presents his desired outcome.
- It is the team’s challenge to rewrite the brief and define goals and purpose. Preferably in a detailed problem statement like, e.g. a “How might we” statement. It functions as a North Star to evaluate effectiveness throughout the project.
- If team members are new to the process, I also spend time explaining each exercise’s theory and purpose so people understand the value.
From my POV, it is the fastest way to prepare people for the conflict ahead. Check out “The Team Canvas” for easy facilitation.
Learning 5: Adjusting team & project structure needs to become a habit throughout your time together.
For the duration of the team life, you are going to encounter many changes. Team members might change, which means your team dynamic is going to change. Expectations towards the outcome might change. Also, time or budget might impact your situation.
To stay on course, you need to revisit the points above regularly. The sequence of the course readjustment depends on your project.
As a rule of thumb: halfway to the next relevant milestone is usually a good indicator.
And lastly, the biggest learning of them all:
Successful teams never forget to have fun!
__________________________________________________________________
Literature list
Google, https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/
Amason, A., & Sapienza, H. (1997). The effects of top management team size and interaction norms on cognitive and affective conflict. Journal of Management, 23: 496–516.
Jehn, K. A., & Mannix, E. A. (2001). The dynamic nature of conflict: A longitudinal study of intragroup conflict and group performance. Academy of Management Journal, 44 (2), 238-251.
Wheelan, S. A. (1994). Group processes: A developmental perspective. Allyn & Bacon.Boston.
