The Root Cause and Cure for Most Team Conflict

 

 

 

 

 

Recent research into team dynamics by the Quantum Group has led to extraordinary revelations about the root of conflict--in particular, the morale-sapping and productivity-killing kind that develops within teams. You know what I mean. You assign a group to a project, and the next thing you know, World War III has broken out in your conference room. Or people start knocking on your door to complain about one another. Or you observe that one of two people are carrying the whole effort and running themselves into the ground, getting more resentful and burned out by the day, while the rest of their so-called team order pizza and surf the Internet. 

Teams in conflict cost millions of dollars a year in lost productivity and generate untold ill will among coworkers.

In the Quantum study, high conflict teams were asked to identify the source of their conflict. Nearly 100 percent of them said that the main problem was other people.

Two root causes emerged from these conversations. The first root cause of conflict that people reported was personality clashes: that some people are difficult to work with. They're jerks, basically. The second root cause of conflict that people identified was that some people on their teams--although perfectly nice--just had no idea what they were doing. For sake of simplicity, let's call them idiots. (You will already be familiar with jerks and idiots from your commute--jerks are the ones driving faster than you, and idiots are the ones driving slower than you. [Thank you George Carlin!])

Let me back up for a moment: in all fairness, it is completely human, and natural, that when we meet someone new, within minutes we try to label them. We want to know: Does this person like me? (Is this person like me?) Do we agree? When we find someone who agrees with us, we label them immediately. (We call those people geniuses.) And when we meet somebody who does not agree with us, very quickly we have to figure out whether the person is a jerk or just kind...flawed in some way. So, it's not at all strange taht we heard people attributing conflict to the personalities and incompetence of others.

There's only one problem with this theory that the roots of conflict are personal. It sets up a paradigm in which there is no real solution. If the root causes of conflict could be reduced to jerks and idiots, then there would have to be a way to nicen up jerks and smarten up idiots. I'm not sure if you have ever tried that, but my attempts have not been very successful. The Quantum research would uncover a truth more heartening than that. There is indeed a way to help teams resolve conflict.

AMBIGUITY IS THE SOURCE OF MOST CONFLICT

The researchers solicited more information from the groups in conflict, asking them to rate their level of clarity around three categories of work: their team's goals, roles and procedures. The teams in conflict had a high level of ambiguity in all three categories. The researchers concluded that the root cause of conflict is very rarely personality or incompetence. The breakthrough understanding that resulted from this research is that most conflict comes from ambiguity.

There are three basic types of ambiguity that can derail a team. First is ambiguity about goals--a lack of alignment of a lack of clarity that causes people to work against each other without realizing it. The second ambiguity is about roles. When people don't have a clear understanding of who is doing what, and where the boundaries between the roles are, it leads to conflict. Finally, there is ambiguity about procedures--a lack of agreement as to how to get the work done. When we operate in the state of nonalignment, it's no wonder we judge each other as jerks and idiots. That's why, when we work with other people, we really have to get clear on what we want to create, what each person's role is, and how we are going to proceed. Those questions drive much more professional conversations, prevent conflict, and move us toward our ultimate goal a lot more efficiently.

Ambiguity About Goals

Think about how your staff's lack of clarity on goals affect your department and organization. I guarantee you that some of your people have no idea what your main goals are or how their efforts can fit in and support those goals. You have to tell them. Never take for granted that everyone is on the same page. At times, you will have to negotiate with other teams or departments to coordinate your goals in a way that's respectful of everyone's time, expertise, and effort.

Ambiguity About Roles and Procedures

The same kinds of conflicts erupt around roles and procedures. We all make assumptions about what other people should be doing or what their roles encompass. But instead of of discussing our expectations with them, we usually save it for the agenda after the meeting, talking about them only after they have left the room. In addition to being unfair, it's unproductive. Many of us, in order to avoid having to talk to or confront each other, look to job descriptions. But these are not fixed---they're always changing, and people's interpretations vary. So making assumptions leads to conflict, whereas talking about roles ensures that everyone is in alignment. When roles and procedures are transparent, teams rum much more smoothly and efficiently.

Once leaders learn to facilitate clarity around goals, roles, and procedures, and people get used to initiating those conversations, they can't understand why they had conflict at all. So why don't people come to it intuitively. Why does conflict keep happening?

It takes a lot of courage to ignore our visceral emotions and instead have a professional clarifying conversation. It's easier in the moment to come up with a story to justify not taking the initiative: we just tell ourselves it wouldn't make any difference, because other people are unreasonable or incompetent. But the moment we make it personal, we are no longer dealing with reality. And when we start making decisions out of that kind of story, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I see someone as a jerk, I only collect evidence that proves my point. That story feels safer than stepping and providing real leadership: having to clarify, to reach out, to communicate, to empathize and respond. In the long run, though, it's much easier and more efficient to have that honest conversation than to live with the long-term conflict. When you finally figure that out, it is life changing.

We tend to think that clarity is a byproduct of a highly functioning team, but it's the reason why they function well. As a leader, you do not have to resolve conflict--just provide clarity about goals and roles. Clarity gives employees the freedom to operate within their roles and be as effective as possible. And it stops conflict in its tracks.

Communicate consciously. Make sure everything you are asking people to do ties back into a strategic plan that you have shared with them. Never assume people will fall into place. If you are a leader at the managing director or vice president level, you should be spending a significant of your time with people clarifying goals and roles. If you're doing your job correctly, you should not--brace yourself---have to get very involved in the procedures piece. People who are clear on their goals and roles should--and will---devise their own procedures for getting the job done.

Finally, the best things you can do do for building an effective team is teach you people one key question: "How can I help?" This question, and the spirit in which it is asked, are the heart and soul of a healthy group dynamics. In most workplaces, both the question and attitude are all too rare.

I suggest that you adopt the golden rule of teamwork for your group: 
Stop Judging and Start Helping.

To your greater success and harmony,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

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Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.