Team Conflict

Managing conflict is an essential skill – but is having conflict essential?

There is a lot to be said about having a good argument. You can clean the air and resolve major emotional issues. However, when in a heated argument you may also damage relationships. Some people claim that conflict is a good thing, but we do need to be careful of what we mean with this, and the research now paints a pretty clear picture of when this can be beneficial – or not.

---

Conflict can be a good thing but only under certain conditions.

---

Harmony is something I have promoted on these pages many times. For example, we looked at inter-brain synchrony here and how this contributes to team success.

However, we can’t always have inter-brain synchrony, and secondly there is also evidence that conflict can help produce better results or at least so many people claim.

How so you may ask?

Well, there are many reasons:

• Conflict happens and unresolved conflict causes tension and can lead to greater more damaging conflict later on

• Conflict allows us to approach critical issues and resolve critical differences

• Letting it out can lower stress and hence results in more productive brains

• Experiencing high emotional states collectively actually builds bonding and trust which enable higher performance (critical moments or “moments of truth”).

Now, there is plenty of conventional wisdom around this and many books have been written on the topic. Let’s see how much evidence there is and what is happening in the brain.

The Brain and Conflict

So, first off, what is happening in the brain in conflict situations?