Building Conflict Competent Teams

Understanding how to cool down, slow down, and engage the naturally occurring conflicts among team members is critical to the ultimate success of a team.  Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, describes this book as, “…A comprehensive, thoroughly researched guide to the crucial and inevitable role conflict plays on a team.”  By reading this book, teams and team members will gain a deeper understanding of how conflict emerges and how they can respond in ways that will leverage conflicts to their advantage.  The importance of establishing a safe team climate, agreeing on processes to guide the team’s interactions and use of constructive communication skills are paramount for developing a conflict competent team. 

Conflict is not to be avoided, but embraced and explored.  This often results in new, previously unimagined opportunities, solutions and results.  Stories, interviews, and examples provide entertaining and thought provoking insights throughout the book. One chapter is dedicated to techniques and processes for addressing team conflict that has gone awry. Runde and Flanagan also include useful tips and tools for assessing your team’s current state of conflict competence and suggestions for addressing the challenges of today’s virtual and geographically dispersed teams.