Teams that fear conflict tend to have boring meetings, ignore controversial topics, and fail to utilize all team perspectives. This wastes time and allows issues to go unresolved. Productive conflict is necessary for teams to grow and solve problems quickly. Teams that engage in conflict have lively discussions, extract ideas from all members, and minimize politics. The document provides techniques for making conflict more common and productive on teams, such as having members play the role of "miner of conflict" to extract disagreements. It also suggests providing "real time permission" to encourage healthy debates and prevent members from retreating from productive conflict.

1. Fear of conflict in teams
BY JUDI WARREN

2. Fear of conflict
 DYSFUNCTION 2: Fear of conflict
 It has been said that all great relationships that last over time, require
productive conflict in order to grow. Ideological conflict is limited to
concepts and ideas and avoids personally focused and mean-spirited
attacks. Teams that engage in productive conflict know that the purpose
is to produce the best results in the shortest period of time. Healthy conflict
is actually a time saver. If conflict is avoided, the same issues have to be
addressed again and again.

3. Teams that fear conflict
 TEAMS THAT FEAR CONFLICT
 Have boring meetings
 Create environments were personal attacks thrive
 Ignore controversial topics
 Fail to utilize all team perspectives
 Waste time

4. Teams that engage in conflict
 TEAMS THAT ENGAGE IN CONFLICT
 Have lively, interesting meetings
 Extract ideas from all team members
 Solve problems quickly
 Minimize politics
 Put critical topics on the table for discussion

5. techniques
 Here are a few techniques to make conflict more common and
productive:
 Mining: members who tend to avoid conflict must assume the role of
“miner of conflict”-someone who extracts buried disagreements in the
team and sheds light on them. These people must have the courage and
confidence to call out sensitive issues and make members work through
them. This requires a commitment to stay with the conflict until resolved.

6. techniques
 Real time permission: Members must coach each other not to retreat from
a healthy debate. A simple way to do this is recognize when people
engaged in conflict are uncomfortable and interrupt them and remind
them that what they are doing is necessary. This is a remarkably effective
tool for draining tension from a productive but difficult exchange. Once
this discussion is ended, it is helpful to remind the team that the conflict
they just engaged in is good for the team and not to be avoided in the
future.

7. tools
 Other tools: There are other tools such as Briggs-Meyers that allow
members to better understand each other. Another tool is that specifically
relates to conflict is the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, referred
to as the TKL.

8. Leaders
 The leader may feel the need to protect the members from harm. This
leads to premature interruptions of disagreements and prevents the team
from developing coping skills for dealing with conflict. If the conflict is
stopped too soon, it can strain the relationship by not allowing them the
opportunity to develop conflict management skills. Resolution needs to
occur naturally. If conflict is avoided, when it necessary, the team
continues to be dysfunctional

9. credit
 Notes from leadership class and the book, “The five dysfunctions of a
team.”