Allowing and Supporting Necessary Conflict

I know I started this series on conflict by saying I really don't like conflict, and I meant it.  That doesn't mean that I don't realize that sometimes conflict is necessary.  In a group or team, too much agreement can lead to mediocrity.  As leaders, we need to create a safe place for people to express their opinions, and air out conflict.  The product that results will usually be better than one that results from consistent agreement.

I opened the topic of unconscious bias in yesterday's post.  If you allow your teams to avoid conflict, the unconscious bias of the individuals in the group can lead the group to bias, or group think.  This is very damaging to your product, as your clients will remain diverse.  Whatever it is that your group or team produces or provides, no one in your client base will like everything.  So part of staying successful is producing and providing a diverse enough set of offerings or services so that you maintain a large client pool.

So, how as a leader do you create a safe space for conflict to be resolved?  It starts with the zero tolerance policy for disrespectful words and actions.  Healthy conflict is always about your products and services, not about your individual team members.  Healthy conflict revolves around "I" statements and active listening.  Healthy conflict "depersonalizes" the product or idea.   Healthy conflict always has the same goal - get the very best result for the customer.  I'll provide an example.

Your software team is designing a new web interface for buying shoes.  One team member believes the first filter should be on the following categories:

• Women
• Men
• Children

Another team member believes the first filter should be on shoe type:

• Casual
• Dress 
• Work

A third team member believes the first filter should be on brand:

• Red Wing
• Dansko
• Nike

Everyone is committed to their position, but the dialogue proceeds in a non-destructive manner.  Statements like:

"I believe people want to immediately go to gender when shoe shopping."

"I believe we will get more impulse sales if people filter first by category."

"I think shoe shoppers are brand loyal, and we will get the best result if we filter first by brand."

No right or wrong here - just opinions being expressed in a healthy way.  You as the leader suggest the client gets to pick which filter they want to use, and suggest the team develop a matrix.  The dialogue will inevitably lead to a better collaborative result.  The challenge is to keep ownership or "parenthood" issues to a minimum, and to keep the dialogue out of the "right" "wrong" territory.  If you can help your employees to have productive conflict where there are no winners and losers, just improved outputs, you have mastered necessary conflict.