A Four Part Series on Conflict: Part 1, Good Vs Bad Conflict
Conflict is a topic that comes up often in the area of leadership. It is one of those things most people don’t like and try to avoid, and yet it is so common in many forms that we as leaders must understand what it is and is not, what causes it, and how we can utilize good conflict while managing the bad. For our purposes we will discuss:
Good vs Bad Conflict
What Causes Conflict
How to Steer Conflict to Health
How to Maintain a Culture of Healthy Conflict
Good vs Bad Conflict
Can conflict be good? For most people it doesn’t feel that way. When we hear conflict we think of fighting, raw emotions, and broken relationships.
Yet when people have conflict in a healthy way, it can be a very productive thing for everyone. How?
Task vs Personal Conflict
One of the simplest ways to have healthy conflict is to direct conflict at tasks, not people. Tasks can be anything from small work related jobs to large projects or decisions. The goal is to keep conflict related to the task at hand, keeping it from bleeding over into attacking others.
Task Conflict: Arises from differing ideas, perspectives, and approaches on how to complete work whether it is a large undertaking or a simple job. The foundation of task conflict is usually related to expectations, goals, time, money, process, or priority.
Example: Two members of a team disagree on how to spend money on a project. One wants to spend the entire budget now, while the other suggests saving some in case adaptations need to be made in the future.
Task conflict can be a huge advantage to a team. When done in a healthy way, teams can disagree, explore different perspectives, and come up with a much more sound decision or approach.
Personal Conflict: Involves conflict that has gone beyond the task at hand and into interpersonal issues. The result is emotional outbursts, personality clashes, and attacking character. The conflict becomes more about the relationship between people rather than the thing they are working on together.
Example: One team member doesn’t like the direction of a project. Rather than citing specific task concerns, they make an attacking remark about the team leader and their abilities.
Personal conflict has no real benefit. It harms relationships, creates a toxic environment for communication, and promotes fear rather than collaboration.
Conflict doesn’t have to be a dirty word. It can be a huge benefit to a team that trusts each other and wants to work together towards excellent outcomes. Personal conflict is often most people’s default. When people feel stuck or cornered in a team's direction, they tend to lash out at others rather than voice their opinions on the task. As leaders we need to be sure that we understand the potential conflict pitfalls that exist on our teams. We must also model healthy conflict and make it a priority to build trusting relationships and encourage open communication. This sets our teams up for success where they avoid relational fallout and instead focus on collaboration, compromise, and effective decisions.