Conflict is inevitable and will provide multiple opportunities to test whether a team operates in healthy or poisonous conflict. All three poisons can be present at the same time. The following are some symptoms of each of the previously identified conflict poisons: 1) The Avoider: Teammates that avoid tough talks and refuse to acknowledge the existence of
Passive aggressive teammates have strong opinions but do not express them publically. What we choose not to say in conflict will eventually be manifested in our behavior over time. Our bodies and minds are terrible liars. There are many reasons for passive aggressive behavior. Some people have been hurt by an overly aggressive personality in the past
Unhealthy conflict does not always result from avoiding it. Unhealthy Conflict can also happen when someone decides to preempt it by dominating the decision-making. Dominant personalities can poison a team dynamic if they create an environment that limits feedback and input from others. It’s easier to preempt possible pushback by aggressively pursuing one agenda over all others.
Conflict is a part of every team. Conflict in and of itself is not poisonous, but certain methods of conflict resolution can prove poisonous to a team dynamic. Conflict can and must be handled in a healthy way so that the team is free to move forward toward goals and not be bogged down with team dynamic
Conflict can be difficult to manage on a team if everyone doesn’t participate in a healthy way. Unhealthy conflict can poison a team over time because it dissolves trust and robs each individual of the freedom to focus on the team goals. Precious mental bandwidth is spent on wondering about the motivations and thoughts of others. Unhealthy
When interacting with our teammates we must fight to keep an open mind towards the actions of others. This helps each of us do our part in cultivating a healthy team dynamic. It’s easy to say that we should keep our minds open. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline and practice to actually do it. Our
Everyone is human and by nature, judgmental at times. How can we know if we are acting on a snap judgment or if we are safe to proceed? A great test of our own behavior is to take an honest assessment of how confident we are in our assertions. Snap judgments can simply be defined as conclusions
When precious bandwidth is taken, there is little time to seek information beyond a snap judgment. Individuals are often judgmental because they are often striving for efficiency in thought and action. The cause is often not personal but that doesn’t make it any less diminishing to the “judged” individual. When we as a team allow this to
It’s important to find causes so that you can eliminate them. What causes our judgmental nature? In most cases we are not judgmental because we are terrible people who think we are better than everyone else. The cause of our judgmental proclivity is our limited bandwidth combined with our natural bent towards jumping to conclusions. We are
A judgmental team environment will squash the fun a team can have together because the culture will teach people to hide who they really are. That robs them of the freedom necessary to have fun and be effective. People are judgmental by their very nature. In her book Mastermind, Psychologist Maria Konnikova describes how our brains are