>I believe that conflict plays a
>unique and vital role in team-oriented organizations -- especially within
>teams where team members are equals. Unlike conflict situations in
>hierarchical organizations where disagreements can be "settled" by an
>authority figure, conflicts within teams often take a significant amount
>of time to work through. It has been my experience that taking the time
>to work through conflicts in team contexts often proves to be both an
>enlightening and productive experience. I believe that when people openly
>discuss differences in a safe, non-judgemental manner, conflict can be a
>wonderful thing.
I think that conflict can produce a learning and en lighting experience in
teams. All of the successful teams I have been a member have had high
degrees of conflict. What made the project end successfully was
1. our ability to verbally work through those conflicts
2. not taking judgements personally
3. acknowledging that conflict is a normal team by product, and
4. knowing that out team status was temporary (i.e. once the project is
completed we can go our own ways)
Conflict is a hinderance when people are unable to be truthful, real, or
can not tolerate each other.
--E July <ewj@mninter.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>