Why I am binning the concept of healthy conflict

I have been in a lot of team building days and training over the past 20 years teaching me – and those I work with  - to ‘value and be better at conflict’ and to ‘recognise the value of healthy conflict and healthy challenge’. We have often been offered frameworks that help us have ‘courageous conversations’.

Last week I was on an excellent team day with my Exec. We looked at Leonici’s five dysfunctions of a high performing team https://www.tablegroup.com/books/dysfunctions. Like most models of high performing teams, Leonici’s model sets out the need for healthy conflict.

If you google conflict as a noun you will find that ‘conflict is a serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one.’ I am not sure there is much about that which sounds healthy for the workplace.

So I have a provocation: We need a shift of mindset which leans away from high performing teams require healthy conflict, towards a mindset that says high performing teams must have, express and explore different views, opinions and ideas to be effective.

Why have I called it a provocation?

I was asked to give a provocation at a conference in Australia a decade or so ago. Whilst I was very experienced in running workshops and giving presentations, I didn’t know what giving a provocation meant, so I asked.

And I was told a provocation ‘was meant to encourage a different discussion. I didn’t need to believe it fully. I didn’t need evidence or references or the answer. A provocation was just an idea that might generate different thinking’.  

When it came to my turn I took a deep breath and looking at a room full of researchers I suggested we did not need any more research into the effectiveness of sex education. I suggested that we knew it was an entitlement and we should stop wasting more money on research and just get on with delivery. The conversation was fascinating and of course most folk didn't agree with me. I am not sure I did either, but I certainly learned the power of provocation in creating fresh conversation.

Since that Conference I have often chaired meetings, workshops and events where I have asked people to free themselves from the norms of only speaking if you have evidence, completely thought through ideas or believe the same as everyone else. They have always been interesting conversations.

That is why We need a shift of mindset leaning away from high performing teams require healthy conflict and towards high performing teams need to have, express and explore different views and ideas to be effective is my provocation.

Yes of course every business needs different ideas. We know that if different ideas, views and experiences are harnessed well they help us make good business decisions. We know lots of people really dislike the idea of conflict; it makes them deeply uncomfortable. We also know that disagreement managed badly can silence groups of people and reinforce inequalities. Finally we know that conflict -according to my googling at least - means serious disagreement which is often protracted.

Who wants serious protracted disagreements in the workplace? And how do you make that healthy? Do I value disagreement in the workplace, yes. Do I want to hear different opinions in the workplace, yes. Do I believe that different views and disagreement are vital, yes. Do I believe that what we are talking about really is conflict, or that the idea of healthy conflict works, no.

So from here on when I use Leonici’s model - which I like A LOT - I am going to replace ‘you have to have healthy conflict with a different mindset: ‘we want to hear different views, ideas and perspectives because they make ideas stronger and add value to decision making’.

If you believe healthy conflict really is and can be a thing and it works for you, brilliant. It doesn’t for me and so many people I have the privilege of working with, but we all know different views and ideas make the world go round, and we are all richer when we value our diversity of perspectives.