Jun 27, 2025

It's not always easy to share working examples of team coaching, as the work is private, but here's one...

Working with a client team who were worried about their conflict...

"Our conflict is a sign of failure?"

No! Follow this train of thought...

Think about it. If the team's task could be done by any one team member, a team would not be required.

But it can't. So we need more than one person, and these two (or more) need to be different. Otherwise it's just groupthink.

OK...

Difference necessarily means different ways, ideas and preferences in content, process and style.

So we'll disagree. That's conflict (but not necessarily bad conflict).

The team needed to understand that conflict is an *inevitable* part of teaming, of contributing to a team. Otherwise it's just hierarchy or groupthink.

Conflict is not bad, or shameful. It's a tricky but potentially useful thing.

That took some pressure off. A breath of relief that a new paradigm could begin.

"So what do we do now?"

"Well, given that conflict is inevitable *and* necessary *and* important, how about we decide *now*, *upfront*, how we are going to behave when conflict inevitably happens?".

Great response. Nail on head. And that's an important part of initial Team Contracting in my view.

We then dealt with, and planned for, impending conflict and its relationship with:
- hierarchy, authority, power
- mutual respect
- equality (inc what it means and when it should and should not be invoked)
- hearing both extraverts and introverts
- hearing both more and less experienced/confident people
- values (intersection of organisational and individual)
- living with team decisions.

In other words, we contracted for how to behave when conflict arises. Does that make it easy? No. Was it far better than having no team plan for when conflict arose? Sure did.
Does it support sustainability? Of course.

And it's a dynamic, evolving process that stays live as a meta issue in the background, an enabler for the 'front of house' improvements and transformations which continue.

Onwards!