Most times when we hear the word “conflict”, we associate it with negativity. And most people in organizations try to avoid conflict at all costs. But there are two types of conflict.

Healthy Conflict vs. Unhealthy Conflict

And if you don’t have healthy conflict you most assuredly have unhealthy conflict, and this can lead to lack of trust, collaboration, and ultimately it will affect productivity.

Two common components of Healthy Conflict

1. Focus on the outcome, not on “being right.”
When lively discussions take place in a meeting, and people are debating on what project to do or how to solve a problem, everyone is focused on the “big picture” what is the best result. Opinions and suggestions are given freely. And you as the leader have created a safe space to share ideas and talk them through. Your team is more committed to the success of whatever you are deciding, rather than their success. Instead of jockeying for a position or making sure you come up with the right solution, the atmosphere is one where people are building on each other’s comments and doing the hard thinking.

The opposite would be the mindset of “that will place additional workload on my team” or “I didn’t think of it, so I won’t fully support it.”

2. The separation between performance and personal.
Conversations can get heated; people can get emotional. This will happen, the key thing to keep in mind is that at the end of it, we are still on the same team and we got each other’s backs. It is easy to slip in a personal jab at someone when you are debating with them. Personal attacks can derail your whole conversation, and now someone is just focused on “being right”.

It can be very challenging to discuss something you are so passionate about because the chances of being “emotionally hijacked” are very high. And when we go too emotional, our brain cannot think clearly, and we say and act irrationally.

Two common components of Unhealthy Conflict

1. Don’t talk about it. Sit on our hands.
Like I said earlier, most people associate the word “conflict” as something terrible and should be altogether avoided. What happens usually is people start to hold onto things that occur and begin to harbor grudges because they cannot talk about it. And sometimes this is a direct correlation to the leader’s personality. If the manager is a relater personality type and wants everyone to get along, they will have a tougher time with healthy conflict.

You’ll also see this when you have a troubled employee get passed around from department to department because no one wants to do anything about the problem.

2. Gossip.
The funny thing about gossip is fourth-grade girls do it, and forty-year-old men do it. When the leader does not create an environment where everyone can share and express their opinions, people will share them outside the meeting, and this type of behavior usually undermines what was talked about. Also when not everyone has fully bought in, people will slowly become disengaged. They might change their mindset to “doing a job” “earning a living” as oppose to “doing meaningful work.”

Take small steps to start to create an environment where healthy conflict lives and your productivity will increase.

by Eric Papp

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