I was recently asked to help a firm improve its completion performance on breakthrough projects. The decision to bring me on board was triggered by a backward-looking review of the business case documents that were generated for funding the programs.
These are the kind of projects that lead markets, build brands and provide services to clients that endear them for life. And like many firms, the percentage that created returns in line with the forecasts was low (you’ll find some benchmark data here).
When onsite, I was looking forward to hearing what was on the front burner, so one of the first meetings I stopped by was a program update session. The group was disciplined and prepared, with crisp updates and lots of box checking. I was surprised that everyone appeared to be “on track,” even as the client delivery date was at real risk.
The second was a technology roadmapping session. It was here that I heard key architects of the firm lay plans for future products and services, and the atmosphere could not have been tenser. Two of their senior thought leaders were nose to nose at the whiteboard arguing vehemently for their approach – while the rest of the room cowered uncomfortably. I heard the alternatives being discussed in the hallways for days afterward.
You might have thought that I was excited about the earlier meeting and concerned about the former.
You would be wrong.
Why Tension Matters
In both her new book and a recent HBR Article, NYT best-selling author Liane Davey points out that many of us have some very wrong thinking about high-performing teamwork: we’ve been sold a vision that great work is done in blissful, engaged, consensus dialogue.
In her research and consulting, however, she has come to the conclusion that rather than too much conflict, most firms do not have enough.
This unresolved conflict, which she terms “conflict debt,” builds up inside firms and groups, and keeps them from getting a clear grasp of reality. This keeps them from taking the actions that are necessary to remain up to date and relevant.
In her book, she highlights that all the best insights lie on the other side of people unpacking their differences of opinion. By being willing to honor these various viewpoints, experiences and stakeholder needs, real fresh clarity is developed – and everyone benefits from the transparency. If we fail to “clear the mechanism,” conflict debt piles up and the team stays stuck in a superficial discussion.
How to Get Unstuck
Do a thought experiment with me. Recall the highest performing, cross-functional team you’ve ever served on. When you think back, do you recall more the consensus or the specialization of your teammates? Were you able to challenge one another and not feel like you were going to get kicked off the team?
In a cross-functional team, productive conflict is a feature, not a bug.
If you are on a team that is stuck going in circles, consider doing this exercise to work through each of those roles around these questions suggested by Liane:
- What is the unique value of this role on the team? What should this person be paying attention to that no one else is? What would we miss if this role wasn’t here?
- On which stakeholders is this role focused? Who does it serve? Who defines its success?
- What is the most common tension this role puts on team discussions? What one thing does the person in this role have to say that frequently makes others bristle?
By the time you are done with this work, you will realize that the best teams are built to generate tension, which will present as a conflict. In building new value propositions, we need to be about curating diverse teams that can collaborate to generate new outcomes.
And it turns out that everything we want is on the other side of constructively disagreeing and finding the third way forward.
3 Ways to Build Tension on Your Team
In my own work using the team leadership model Complete Growth Leader, we are building diverse teams that are presented with just the right amount of challenge at the right time in the innovation journey. By teaching the team these styles, and gaining the commitment to work through conflict, very high-quality results come forward.
Here’s how to build the right kind of tension on your team:
- Take some time to get personally comfortable with the fact that the only way to make something truly new is to have some uncomfortable shifts in perspective. This can only be brought about through assembling teams intentionally and putting them under some pressure.
- Invest in training the team in these principles so that they can identify style and viewpoint differences from personality conflicts. For more on styles in Growth Leadership, see posts here, here and here.
- Have the discussions, even though they might not be your first choice, as having a good solid principles based debate is by far the most clarifying approach to finding new paths forward. Using the example of the first team in the opening, you must be willing to ask the hard question of how we could be missing the delivery date if all the sub-teams are on track.
One final note: this is not a license for toxic team members to bully people into submission. We are talking about mutual respect and safety while expressing strong opinions – and very importantly – the underlying “whys” that are completely focused on the best outcome for the client. Emotion is a sign that we are in a zone of deeply held beliefs, and we need to create high challenge-high support relationships and discussions, while taking care to have clear boundaries.
This work can be greatly accelerated with an outside resource. If you’d like to talk through an engagement, feel free to call me at 847-651-1014 or set up an appointment using this link.
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