Our teams work in high-pressure situations; conflict will occur from time-to-time, it's only natural. Our teams need to have tools that will help them deal with it when the time arises.

To start, we need to take the right view of conflict:

• Take a human system's perspective, that is, it's about the process, not the person; to help this thinking, we need to view it from the perspective of the team container, not from the personal perspective of the individuals
• See conflict as a positive change urge—an opportunity, not a problem to be managed
• Consider it to be a manifestation of the system’s diversity and its intelligence
• Self-organization happens when we hear all perspectives and incorporate aspects of some or all of them into our approach

What’s the benefit?

• Constructive conflict will often result in systemic change
• It creates win-win solutions
• It can significantly increase performance

How do we integrate this?

• Educate about conflict and how to keep it constructive
• Establish conflict protocols to resolve issues before they get toxic