All quotes are from The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni

If your team members don’t have weigh-in they won’t buy-in.

If you want a unified team, allow the team members to weigh-in on decisions that they will be directly impacted by.  Who’s on the team? Patrick defines a team as, “a small group of people that work collectively towards a common goal.” Those involved with the project or goal should be involved with the discussion.

Having healthy open team discussion gets all the issues related to the topic at-hand out in the open. In TC such things as, program, schedule, procedure changes and work or fundraising projects that impact the ministry are topics that need open discussion. Creative conflict will engage issues related to the topic at-hand and their impact; issues such as, student schedule, ministry to the students, job roles and responsibilities, policies, public view of the ministry and other areas of impact.

When it comes to ideological conflict, candid open discussion concerning critical matters is crucial for….. team engagement.

“Productive ideological conflict is the willingness to disagree, even passionately when necessary, around important issues and decisions that must be made. But this can only happen when there is trust. When there is trust (A Healthy Team Starts with an Authentic You), conflict becomes nothing but the pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer. This kind of conflict is desirable. Conflict without trust, however, is politics. An attempt to manipulate others in order to win an argument regardless of truth. Seek first to understand then to be understood.”

There are serious and long term ramifications of not getting everything out on the table at the beginning. Avoiding honest, open, even painful discussion, just pushes the potential problems downstream with increasing consequences. One benefit of open discussion is that it can expose potential pitfalls and problems, allowing the team to develop a roadmap to prepare for and possibly avoid problems down the road.

When people don’t get input and are just told what will be, attitudes become negative and engagement levels decline. There is lower productivity and higher conflict amongst staff who must wrestle with the issues amongst themselves. Also, “When we fail to disagree with people around ideas and issues, it ferments into conflict’s around them as a person.”

“At one end of the conflict continuum is no conflict at all – artificial harmony, because it is marked by a lot of false smiling and disingenuous agreement around just about everything, at least publicly. At the other end of the continuum is relentless, nasty, and destructive conflict, with people constantly at one another’s throats. In the middle is the *ideal conflict point  – this is the point where the team is engaged in all the constructive conflict they could possibly have, but never stepping over the line into destructive territory.”

Creative conflict will be messy and difficult, especially if this is new for your team. Boundaries may need to be established, especially if individuals can’t control emotions and volume. Creative, ideological conflict does not mean yelling and fighting.  It will be worth it as unity and clarity are achieved moving the ministry along in efficient harmony.

Commitment is the goal of creative conflict and the next important point in this discussion which will be covered in the next newsletter. For a thorough study of all the other foundational components of a healthy team check out Patrick Lencioni’s book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

Leader’s Role: Demand that your leadership team staff members weigh-in. Are staff free to honestly weigh-in without threat of retaliation or must they be veiled and guarded in their comments?

Think about it

• What are critical decision areas that deserve healthy conflict?
• Are staff members connected to the issue allowed to weigh-in?
• Schedule a meeting and allow sufficient time for all to discuss the next issue moving forward.