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 e...