“Diane, I’ve sat through three of your team’s executive meetings, one board meeting, and a couple of regional meetings. One of your company’s biggest problems is there’s no conflict. No one is challenging anything in the company. Everyone gets along just fine, but it seems that everyone has taken getting along to the point that your team and your company are stagnant. If you really want to see your team and your company grow, get some tension and conflict going.”
At first Diane, the CEO of a mid-sized financial services company was so surprised and disturbed by my statement that I thought she was going to throw me out of her office.
Then she slowly said, “Paul, I trust you so I’m assuming you have a good reason for saying something that I’d take as a pretty stupid thing to say normally. Before I determine you’re not the consultant for us, explain that statement to me.” I did – and now her company is happily engulfed in conflict.
Encouraging conflict
Now, what comes to mind when you hear the word ‘conflict?’ Do you think anger? Arguments about personal territory and personal preferences? Jealousy, suspicion, and resentment?
Those are rightfully referred to as conflict. And they arise in all business organisations. But they aren’t the conflicts I’m talking about that are good, necessary, and helpful to your organisation.
Good conflict brings about strong, enduring, positive change to the organisation and the members of the team.
How does conflict bring about positive change?
Positive change comes from challenging the status quo and tradition; it comes when men and women have the courage to question how the organisation is conducting its business and treating its customers, employees, and vendors; and when the lower ranks challenge the decisions from on high based on the reality they encounter in the real world that is often removed from the executive suite.
For an organisation to grow and mature there must be tension generated by conflict – the conflict of honest men and women seeking to improve the organisation as a whole.
‘Seeking to improve the organisation’ is the rub – most conflict tends to be ‘me’ oriented in some fashion and, thus, destructive. Consequently many organisations try desperately to eliminate all conflict. They have conflict resolution specialists present seminars or counseling.
Yes, on a petty, personal level conflict and its accompanying tension is very undesirable and destructive. But for business and organisational growth there must be some constructive tension and conflict. Unfortunately it can easily get discouraged by efforts to eliminate personal conflict and generate harmony.
Yet the reality is that if no one is questioning, no change or improvement is possible. When people question, there will be others defending the status quo and tradition, and that is when significant growth and maturity can take place.
When policies, procedures, rules, regulations, old ways of doing things, and traditional perspectives are questioned, good things happen. Sometimes those existing items are determined to be right and good; at other times they are determined to be in need of change, whether just a mild adjustment or a radical tearing down and rebuilding.
The very act of questioning, or looking at alternatives is constructive and profitable as it forces the organisation to evaluate who it is, what it does, and how it does it.
How can destructive ego and personal feeling issues be avoided at a time of change? There is no way to keep them out of the mix entirely. However, there are courses, seminars, and coaches that can help teach team members how to keep the conflict professional, seeking the best for the company, and keeping personal feelings and egos out – or at least to a minimum.
Tension and conflict is bittersweet. But the positive results that come from good, positive, constructive conflict make it worthwhile to stretch the team and get out of the company comfort zone.
If your organisation doesn’t have some tension and conflict it’s stagnating and soon will get left behind by competitors who are willing to raise, discuss, and argue those uncomfortable questions.
