A few months ago, I had the pleasure of welcoming bestselling author Daniel Coyle to my Intersections podcast, where we explored in detail what makes high-performing cultures what they are.

Daniel talked about a key insight he had in his research regarding a thought that has likely occurred to all of us at some point or the other — the myth that high-performing groups are conflict free.

We might look at high- performing organizations and teams and think, ‘Wow, there must be so much creativity and genius and agreement in these meetings. That’s how they get things done.’ But this is not true. Daniel talks about how high-performing teams experience conflict just as we all do. But they don’t stray away from it. Instead, they are very good at handling it. They are good at arguing constructively, at turning towards their problems and tensions together.

Why is this so productive?

Typically, when a problem comes up, people ignore it, they shy away from discussing it because they don’t want to look silly or risk their reputation or create conflict. So problems and issues run the risk of being ignored.

Conversely, in high performing teams people spot the problem, gather around it, and have high energy, intensive discussions to fix it, to make it better, and to exploit the opportunities it presents. This is what makes them great, this ability to approach conflict as a learning opportunity, as a breeding ground for ideas, as a collaborative exercise and not as something that needs to be pushed under the carpet.

This attitude towards conflict is an approach all of us can keep in mind as we encounter conflict in our own teams, as we strive to do our best work in service of our collective purpose. I don’t mean just teams at work — it could be conflict in our family, or our circle of friends, or our community.

Warmly,
Hitendra

P.S. I encourage you to share this newsletter with others who would be keen to apply this insight within their own teams and organizations.

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