Low Relationship Conflict leads to better decisions and more original ideas

In order improve the working environment and increase the chance for interesting and original ideas there should be a motivation to minimize the possibility of relationship conflict.

Two types of conflict

There are two types of conflict: Relationship Conflict and Task Conflict. In a team there can and should always be room for conflict related to tasks, solutions, ideas, etc. But Relationship Conflict should be kept at the absolute minimum to foster creative and original ideas.

There is nothing worse, than feeling the sense of unresolved conflict in the air — be it at work or at home. In such a situation you will not speak up or come up with cool new ideas. It's demotivating and potentially leads you down a downward spiral, where at some point people will leave a team or a relationship will break up.

This also reminds me on the importance of regular retrospectives within a team or relationship. They work similar to a valve, which gets released every two weeks instead of building up more and more pressure.

How to lower the potential for Relationship Conflict

• State the rules in the beginning (e.g. Social Contract, Team Rules)
• Have regular retrospectives with the team
• Foster an error culture within a team to enable it to see mistakes as something positive
• Admit your own mistakes and tell stories about what you learned from those mistakes