Professional Services

Achieving Conflict Competence

Successful athletic teams can offer a useful paradigm of what drives team excellence; for trusting others to do what’s right for the team and one another, is a central part of winning team behavior. Trust is a seen as one of five essential internal factors of team effectiveness (see Lominger’s FYI for Teams and the T7 model) with successful teams more rare than commonplace. Therefore, it takes somewhat of a leap to wrap our minds around how we see teams actually working effectively and functioning at a high performance level in today’s workplace. As much of work that gets done today is through team, it is essential we optimize how they function and get work done.

In addition to trust, other key internal functions of the T7 model of team effectiveness include thrust – having a common purpose, and talent, having the right team members on the bus, with the collective skills to get the work done, and task skills, for execution, and teaming skills to operate efficiently as a team, along with good decision making, and the ability to manage conflict effectively.

Experience tells us conflict is inevitable in any organization at any level and can be seen to have a bottom line impact. In addition to the importance of team members getting along and getting ahead, the measure of team effectiveness includes producing outcomes that are acceptable to clients, having an environment where the team grows in its capability, and where individuals learn.

Therefore, it becomes essential for managers and team leaders to accept the accountability to establish a psychologically safe environment which promotes high trust where team members communicate openly and can openly disagree and learn together – which as important to delivering breakthrough performance as is collaboration and business strategy.

The types of conflict a leader will encounter can be seen where there is disparity between groups or individuals who share particular characteristics, such as sales and operations people, or engineers and program mangers, technology personnel and software designers, or line and staff managers. Often the conflict involves a deep and personal sense of how people see themselves, who they are, or of their role or position. Differences in perceptions around the need for power, control, recognition, or stature can be a source of deeply felt conflict and resentment. When individuals or teams are able to address these conflict “opportunities” effectively together, we see how the conflict can surface the people’s deeply felt feeling around an issue, what gives their work meaning and purpose, and addressing the conflict in this way can serve to provide ongoing learning and appreciation of differences of how things occur to one another and promote lasting change in the work of the organization.

While some interpersonal conflict should be avoided as where there are personality differences, like moving those players into work different groups, deeper conflicts cannot be easily dismissed just by telling people to make nice. Rather, from a cost benefit point of view, leaders must learn the importance of engaging these instances and individuals and see them as opportunities for learning. While it is counter-intuitive to move toward the conflict rather than avoid it, when one is better equipped to surface the conflict, and deal with it, it will, over time, enable and better serve the greater needs of the team and the organization.

How can a team or an organization ensure that conflict becomes constructive versus destructive, and an opportunity for learning and change? Changing the common perception that conflict is something to be avoided and burdensome requires we see it through a new lens and with new awareness that will help us see the conflict differently.

The Path to Achieving Conflict Competence
One of the better ways to change and leverage new awareness and equip leaders and their team members with practical skills and understanding of how to deal with conflict with competence is with through a development experience designed to help individuals and teams integrate the power of choosing beneficial responses to conflict with a powerful system for people who work in high pressure, turbulent environments.

This unique seminar, integrates the use of the renowned Conflict Dynamics Profile (the CDP), a survey instrument built upon extensive research and a model that views conflict as a complex process that unfolds over time – and teaches the ISkillsZone, a practical comprehensive and powerful system of communication skills, principles and strategies, to apply immediately for handling a wide range of challenging on-the-job situations.

Together, with expert coaching, this proven system provides a powerful way to improve self-awareness of what triggers conflict in individuals as well as how people respond to conflict and enables individuals and teams to be more effective in dealing with difficult situations. Based on better understanding of triggers and responses, the Conflict Dynamics Profile provides practical approaches for improving behaviors that promote more effective workplace conflict resolution while contributing to a focused return on team work effort.

Five necessary conditions for team effectiveness:

1. A so called real team with four features: a team task, clear boundaries, clearly assigned authority to make team decisions, and membership stability
2. Possessing a compelling direction refers to whether the team has clear, challenging, and consequential goals that focus on the ends to be accomplished rather than the means the team must use to pursue them.
3. An enabling structure refers to whether the team’s task composition and norms of conduct enable rather than impede teamwork.
4. Supportive organizational context refers to whether the team receives adequate resources; a rewards system, information system, education system, intergroup relations, and support that members need to accomplish their tasks.
5. Expert coaching refers to the availability of a competent coach to help team member’s deal with potential issues or existing problems in order to accomplish team tasks. Expert coaching also helps team members to take advantage of emerging opportunities and improve their coordination and collaboration. Note: superb coaching can’t turnaround bad design.
6. Key insight from Hackman’s research – focus less on “cause and effect” of the behaviors and performance, and more on enabling conditions.
7. The “Leader Attribution Error” – driving team effectiveness v/v behavioral style of the leader, can be “something so strong” that attributes to success or failure.
8. Important to identify what the team conditions are.

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