How to Preempt Team Conflict

How to Preempt Team Conflict

Defuse conflicts to establish a healthy team dynamic.

Author(s): Ginka Toegel, Jean-Louis Barsoux

Publisher: Harvard Business Review

Date of publication: 2016

Read this article on the publisher's website [Harvard Business Review]

Summary

The authors, teachers and researchers at IMD business school, rely on their research and their work with leadership teams to present a methodology conducive to establishing a healthy team dynamic. They start with the observation that debates are too often undermined by interpersonal tension that could have been avoided. To avoid such tension, they encourage teams to devote discussion time to better understand differences in expectations and standards in five main areas, such as deadline management, acceptable level of assertiveness or emotional expression, etc. This is good material to help teams avoid unnecessary irritation and misunderstanding.