Conflict in Teams

For a long time, “conflict” was a dreaded word for me. I was raised to keep the peace and avoid confrontation, while others might embrace a heated debate. As I gained experience, I realized that conflict, when healthy is essential in personal relationships, teams, and even within ourselves. It fuels innovation, growth, and deepens relationships. But what is healthy conflict, and when does it help or harm a team?

Literature identifies different types of conflict, examples are:

• 𝗧𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘁 – Disagreements on how a task should be done.
• 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘁 – Stemming from interpersonal differences.
• 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘁 – Disputes over roles and responsibilities.
• 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘂𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘁 – Disagreements over relative status within the team.

Conflict often becomes disruptive when relational conflict mixes with task or process conflicts, leading to bias and loss of objectivity. Another critical challenge for teams is status conflicts, which can subtly lead to unproductive forms of conflict.

When facing conflict, identify it’s type and separate helpful elements from harmful ones. Determine where task-related issues mix with personal conflict, or where ambiguity in status affects outcomes.
Understanding each other’s behaviors during conflict can support an open culture and focused discussion. Trust and establishes norms can naturally seperate the types of conflict. Below, Lencioni’s wheel is a valuable tool to reflect on team and individual behaviors.

Please let me know if you need support in navigating a challenge in your team or if you want to know more on how we use Lencioni’s 5 behaviours method to work with teams on conflict, via the contact form you can schedule a free introduction conversation.

If you want to know more details on the research behind conflict I can recommend this paper: Conflict in Teams – Lindred L Greeg & Jennifer E Dannals 2017