Fostering a Culture of Productive Conflict

Many managers I meet promise me that they’re doing everything they can to foster a culture of productive conflict on their teams. Then I sit and and listen to what they’re actually saying…and, well…not so much.

If you’re trying to foster a culture of productive conflict in your team, be careful that your language doesn’t let them off the hook. Getting your team members to stick a toe in the water of dissention, challenge, and disagreement is a big ask. If your language makes it seem optional, it’s not likely that people will give it a try.

Today, I want to give you the framework for a conversation you can have with your team that will help shift their mindset from productive conflict being optional to it being non-negotiable.

Before we dive in, I have to tell you the funny story of how I came to this insight. It’s actually a story from home, rather than work. Many years ago, our younger daughter wanted to try out for cross-country running. Her dad is a great runner who can bang out marathons with little difficulty, so we were all for it. She signed up and enthusiastically showed up early a couple of days a week to run laps of the track. When the track meet eventually arrived, she came 283 out of 290 runners. Sadly, her athletic genes came from me, not her dad. (But that’s not the interesting part of the story…)