4 Ways to Reduce Conflict in a Work Team

If you work with human beings, you are going to experience conflict at some point. And if you work primarily in teams, it is likely you’ll experience conflict on a regular basis. Conflict doesn’t have to drag you or your team down, though, if you handle it correctly, and it can lead to work breakthroughs and the deepening of relationships with your colleagues.

Here are a few ways to manage conflicts among your work team.

Set clear expectations. Work teams need to be clear about what behavior is acceptable and the appropriate ways to communicate. This should be modeled by leaders and supervisors at work, and teams need to have conversations around expectations for how the team will function and work together to ensure everyone is on the same page from the start, and a process is put in place to specify expectations for new individuals who join the team later.

Define terms. Sometimes arguments and disagreements take place in a team because common terms related to the work have not been defined and understood in the same way by others on the team. 

Seek to create a shared vocabulary that will reduce tension and conflict in a group. It can helpful to write these definitions down and provide access to the team so when conflict arises this document can be referred to.

Meet face to face. When conflicts arise, it is best to meet face to face and communicate in person with a specific person or with the team. It becomes easier to understand nuance and read body language, which can help come to a resolution. When setting expectations, it can be useful to come to an agreement on the types of information or communications that will be handled in person and those that can be managed through email or text.

Seek to understand and practice empathy. A practice to model and stress for the team is habit five from Stephen R. Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Implementing this practice will go a long way toward preventing or resolving conflicts when they arise within your team.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Dare to Disagree

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

In this video business leader Margaret Heffernan discusses the importance of conflict and disagreement to progress and challenges listeners to consider how this impacts how we do business and proceed in our work lives.

Watch the video below for more:

Reinforcing safe communication: last in a series

The ability to create and maintain a safe space where communication can occur uninhibited is a terrific workplace skill. After coming to terms with what you are up against and obtaining buy-in from your team to design a safe psychological space, the last step is to reinforce the behaviors that lead to unparalleled group communication. Regardless of your position within the organization, as a leader you have the ability to reinforce this new group dynamic, one that will enable quick cohesion and allow productivity to soar.

Step three: reinforcing safe communication
There are two distinct things you can do to reinforce the behavior that you want to see: mine for conflict and reaffirm others' behavior.

Mining for conflict
When you mine for conflict, you turn your listening up to a different level. You are not only hearing the words that are said but also the intent behind the words. Further, when mining for conflict you become acutely aware of the "energy" behind the words and the energy of the group. When someone answers with a response of "possibly," the person's tone of voice when giving the response speaks volumes to what they are really thinking. When mining for conflict, it is your duty to bring those issues to the surface and have a discussion with them in an attempt to get stronger buy-in from your group.

A great question to ask to mine for conflict is "why won't this work?" It forces the team to bring up what they are already thinking about: possible aspects of failure or what they are saying "yes" to or "no" to when making the decisions that have to be made.

Mining for conflict isn't a hindrance in that it brings up conflict; the conflict is already there. It just brings it to the surface sooner so that it can be worked through.

Affirming conflict
When conflict comes up, sometimes the discussion can get heated. Ideas clash and personalities can become forceful. So long as no one's character is being attacked and only the ideas and concepts are being debated, this is exactly what the group needs to happen. Thus, you are encouraged to - while in the middle of a debate with a group - to say "this is good. This debate is exactly what we need to have." This sends the message to group members that what they are debating are important things and that the conflict isn't something to shy away from: it will make the output stronger, and it will make the group stronger knowing that they can have these unfettered discussions with respect and in the interest of their goals.


Communication is an essential component of the workplace, but we do not often talk about what we mean when we say "communication." It's those unarticulated expectations and standards that can quickly derail communication. By intentionally designing a space of psychological safety and diligently reinforcing it, positive group dynamics are created and output soars while group members feel closer and stronger.

Assignment: in your next meeting, turn up your listening to hear what is being said behind the words: worries, intent, and other avenues for conflict. Further, ask the hard question "why won't this work?" to evoke an even deeper conversation between team members.