Healthy Conflict – A Myth?

If you have a job, if you are part of a family, if you are alive and involved with other humans…you have conflict.

If you are passionate about the purpose of your organization…if you care about the people in the organization…the customers you serve…you will have conflict.

XM Truth: Teams that learn how to have Healthy Conflict will always outperform their peers who avoid it.

The vast majority of humans try to handle conflict by AVOIDING IT.

This is how it looks:
Delegation > poor quality work > avoid conflict > repeat. 

After a few cycles of this the leader starts getting emotionally detached from their teammate. It starts to leak out.

• The leader talks about the person to other people in the business.
• The leader gets short with their teammate, frustration leaks out in body language, curt responses.
• The leader gives up on them and checks out.

   

And the there’s the 10% who are grenade throwers, they never see conflict as something to be avoided. Their tactics are to bully, scream, and demean teammates into submission.

Check out our Mad Scientist video on the physiology of your body in conflict.

If you have an unsafe, unhealthy environment with lots of avoidance or toxic conflict, who leaves first? The top performers.

Flip that script: in a safe team where healthy conflict and accountability for results is normal, effective, even fun…who leaves first? The low performers.

You are probably closer to your next breakthrough than you imagine. Master feedback and create an environment where conflict and debate are healthy and normal.

We will look forward to seeing you on the Xtra Mile.