Fostering conflict...and building your team

Most of us been raised in environments - personal and professional - that cause us to view conflict as something to be avoided.  In its place many of us learn, perhaps through painful experience, that we should strive for harmony and defer to the directions of those in positions of greater authority.  Yet there are many classic examples where the leader, the team and the larger organization would have been better served by more open and honest discussion of issues and options, where a larger goal would have been served by a leader encouraging dissent and conflict.

It may seem counter-intuitive to suggest that conflict is the way to better teamwork but that is the premise for this post.  It builds from a previous blog on building a successful team where I described one of my best experiences in leading a team and an organization.  I offered that one of the key elements of our collective success was that all points of view were afforded an opportunity to be heard and acted upon.  Did I actually encourage conflict?  I believe I stopped short of encouraging physical confrontations and personal attacks but after that I wanted my team to bring forward issues, ideas, opportunities and challenges with all the passion they had in service of our larger shared goal.  In our case, the larger shared goal focused on providing the best health services we could for our rural communities. 

When I first entered the picture as the CEO of this particular organization it was experiencing more than a bit of stress - it was relatively new, it was experiencing the effects of significant budget cuts and service changes (including facility closures), it had poor relationships with many of its communities on more than a few levels, the board itself was split along a number of different lines, and the past CEO had been let go.  This was a team under siege.  Conflict could certainly have been the order of the day - with or without me encouraging it.

More to the point this was a team - or perhaps a collection of individuals - that could have easily fractured and engaged in all manner of destructive conflict focused on their personal preservation, desiring to maintain allegiance to the interests of their local community or other stakeholders, and more than willing to engage in personal attacks on others.  So how did it make sense to foster conflict?  It only made sense if we started with that larger goal in mind and engaged in conflict not about where we were headed but what might be the best strategies or tactics to get there.  Once we had spent the time and energy to clarify for ourselves that we were in fact on the same page we could move forward and give rein to our shared passionate, professional commitments.

I have no doubt that in the days and weeks leading up to my arrival and in the first few weeks that followed, there was a lot of anxiety about who and what this new leader was about.  It would be one thing to say I was looking for new ideas, energy and commitment but given recent history in the organization there is no question that a lot of the team were from Missouri in this regard - Show Me!  And together we did Show Us!  We did passionately debate a variety of issues, opportunities and challenges.  We respected the skills, abilities and experience that each individual team member brought to the table.  I believe we did successfully tackle problems and just as importantly avoided tackling each other.

For many outside of this "circle of trust" I'm sure they might have wondered how anything got done.  I'm sure they would have viewed our meetings and retreats as more than a bit chaotic.  The simple matter was that while we had some structure and parameters for our meetings and discussions we were more than prepared to change and modify - and improve - our direction because we were all allowed to show the courage of our convictions.  As a result, I believe we unleashed the potential of our individual team members and became a team capable of some pretty amazing feats - and all out of proportion to our size.

Further to this "environment of conflict", the trust we developed, and the respect we had for each other as professionals (and people) we were also more than willing to enforce a modicum of humble pie on ourselves.  We made sure that no one of us got too big for their britches.  This was done with humor and respect and a spirit of camaraderie.  And always with the big picture in mind - how were we going to get better and better at achieving our stated mission and do so in keeping with our stated values.



Long story short, as a leader your role should be to get as many different opinions and facts and positions and options on the table as possible.  You need to encourage diversity of opinion.  You need to encourage constructive conflict.  If you are the only one speaking or everyone seems to be agreeing with you quite readily you better start getting nervous.  At best you are headed for mediocrity.  At worst you are headed for your own Bay of Pigs.
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Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
Executive Coach/Consultant
BreakPoint Solutions
gregh@breakpoint.solutions
780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.