Healthy teams don’t avoid conflict.
They lean into it.
They use disagreement to create clarity, commitment, and engagement.
On healthy teams, people accept that disagreement is inevitable between strong-minded and experienced team members.
So they celebrate it rather than try to suppress it. Healthy teams bring conflict out in the open, making it visible and transparent.
They refuse to push concerns and disagreements off until later or for a side conversation.
Instead, they encourage people to express their candid views even when they run contrary to those of more powerful team members.
They know that silence surrounding controversial or risky decisions is most likely a reflection of fear, not harmony.
But to keep conflict from destroying trust, shared commitment, and engagement, team leaders set a few ground rules and enforce them. Healthy teams openly debate strategies, priorities, decisions, and risks.
They try never to examine people’s motives, intentions, or competence in group settings.
Team leaders make sure disagreements are acknowledged and that everyone with a differing viewpoint is heard.
They then make sure the discussion of the conflict examines all sides of the issue, divorced from the particular source of the viewpoint.
Good leaders know that talented people disagree because they care, not because they need to be right or want to project a superiority over others. They therefore require that everyone be respected during disagreement.
This means avoiding sarcasm and personalization during the debate.
If they see people breaking into camp or factions, they bring the discussion back to ideas and not people.
By always uncoupling the issue and the people involved, they turn conflict into a strength and not an infirmity.
Even when opinions and viewpoints clash forcefully, conflict has the potential to sharpen the team’s thinking rather than create fractures between people.
It all depends on how teams and leaders approach it. Healthy teams embrace conflict and welcome it.
They know that without it, high-quality outcomes and decisions are unlikely.
