{"id":89,"date":"2021-04-26T13:19:11","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T17:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/technicalwriting2ed\/chapter\/4-4-managing-team-conflict\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:06:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:06:35","slug":"4-4-managing-team-conflict","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/technicalwriting2ed\/chapter\/4-4-managing-team-conflict\/","title":{"raw":"4.3 Managing Team Conflict","rendered":"4.3 Managing Team Conflict"},"content":{"raw":"Team conflict is ubiquitous! It is a common experience that transcends culture and profession. People you work with will have divergent opinions, perspectives, and ways of doing things. This means that challenges and conflicts are bound to arise \u2013 the trick is to be ready for them! In the previous section, we discussed several strategies for keeping teams on track and functioning well. You can proactively prevent a lot of conflict by using these strategies, but accepting that conflict will inevitably occur means that you need to develop additional tools and strategies for managing it effectively and constructively. This is why there is an emphasis on teamwork in post-secondary professional instruction. Teamwork development as part of a course offers you the chance to experiment, practice, and learn these skills in a low stakes space, rather than on the job where the stakes are much higher.\r\n\r\nStrong communication and collaboration skills are not inborn; they require deliberate practice. Few aspects of your professional practice can surface your insecurities and worst communication tendencies like teamwork can. Conflict can trigger our nervous system's \"Fight or flight\" responses, causing us to react defensively or try to avoid the problem. Reacting and interacting with teammates requires you to transform complex thoughts, feelings, and motivations into not only knowledge, but also clear and constructive language -- all while under the stress of meeting performance expectations and deadlines.\r\n\r\nHere is the good news: if managed effectively, team conflict can actually lead to more productive and cohesive teams, stronger ideas,\u00a0and unexpected innovations. Poorly managed conflict, however, can negatively impact team morale and progress, and can even derail a team and project entirely. Keep this in mind: \u00a0no one starts out intending to be a poor teammate. Conflict often arises from confusion over team members\u2019 roles, misalignment of team goals, conflicting schedules, heavy work loads, stress, and internal team misunderstandings. These common issues can lead to confusion, anxiety, or even anger, creating an environment for the following unproductive behaviours to surface:\r\n

Isolating<\/em><\/strong>: breaking away from the team and just doing work on your own without collaborating with others or with minimal interaction. This can lead to inefficiency in the team, as isolators don\u2019t communicate sufficiently with the team, are not involved in decision-making, and other team members don\u2019t know what they are doing and feel stressed out.<\/p>\r\n

Hijacking<\/em><\/strong>: taking over the project and doing work without consulting with the team. This may arise out of anxiety about grades, or lack of trust in team members; hijackers may revise or redo work already done by others without consultation or permission. This can be frustrating and even feel disrespectful to other teammates who have worked hard on their contributions.<\/p>\r\n

Hitchhiking<\/em><\/strong>: just coming along for the ride, but not contributing equitably. If a team member feels \"left out,\" or is unsure about what they are supposed to do or how they are supposed to do it, they might feel anxious and simply \"opt out.\" Hitchhikers may simply not show up, or they may make excuses for not attending team meetings (I\u2019m too busy, I have a midterm, a rugby game, a trip planned, etc<\/em>). Not meeting commitments makes extra work for other team members, which leads to resentments. Hitchhiking behaviour needs to be addressed early! It rarely improves without clear and constructive feedback and discussion within the team<\/p>\r\n

Enabling<\/em><\/strong>: being overly helpful (a \u201cpeople pleaser\u201d), taking on too much of the work to try to make up for other team members.\u00a0\"Hitchhikers\" can start relying on \"enablers\" to pick up their slack. <\/span>This can lead to frustration and potentially burn out when the enabler can't effectively complete all the additional tasks they have volunteered to do. This can result in the enabler starting to isolate or hijack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\nThese behaviours almost never resolve on their own. Ignoring them generally leads to larger and more complex issues that often come to a head close to a project deadline, when it might be too late to find a workable solution. Resolving these issues effectively requires that you regularly engage in clear, constructive, solution-focused communication \u2013 the earlier you address an issue, the better!\r\n

Moving from Conflict to Constructive Conversation<\/h1>\r\nEffective teams not only produce high quality deliverables on time; they also focus on promoting team cohesion and development. This focus requires a shift to a collectivist perspective where each team member feels responsible for ensuring the health of the whole team. At times, this means being willing to have uncomfortable or \u201ctough conversations\u201d with teammates and to face your anxieties around conflict so you can address the needs of the team and project.\r\n\r\nThink about conflicts or problems you have had in the past when working in teams. Can you think of ways you could have planned ahead to prevent them? Being proactive can prevent a lot of issues. For example, defining the criteria and protocols for removing a team member from the team will often prevent issues from going that far, because everyone knows how they will be held accountable. However, despite these preventative measures, conflict is bound to come up from time to time. You need to have effective strategies for managing it effectively when it does arise.\r\n\r\nConsider this common scenario:\r\n
\r\n\r\nA teammate is not meeting expectations in their participation and\/or the quality of their work, but you are not comfortable telling them this. Instead, you complain to friends, other team members, and may even speak to the course instructor, but you do not talk directly to the team member. In this situation, you are letting your discomfort override being an effective team member.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nWhen you focus only on your own discomfort, you develop solutions that only serve you and not the team; this inevitably contributes to team breakdown. While having the \u201ctough conversation\u201d can feel uncomfortable for all involved, the benefits of constructively addressing the problem far outweigh this short-term discomfort. The key is to develop strategies for giving and receiving constructive feedback, and practice them until you feel more comfortable with them. The 2 exercises embedded below offer ways to engage in this practice.\r\n

Four Strategies for Constructive Feedback<\/h1>\r\nCommit to making constructive feedback a regular part of your team\u2019s processes (for example, build it in to your Team Charter or weekly meeting schedule), where each team member strives to create an environment that allows the team to produce its best work. The strategies described below will help you provide and receive feedback constructively.\r\n

1. Cultivate Empathy<\/h2>\r\nEmpathy<\/a> -- the ability to understand and connect with someone else\u2019s thoughts, feelings, and perspective -- is not something you either have or don\u2019t; it\u2019s a skill that requires practice. Grounding your actions and reactions in empathy significantly improves both your communication and connection with teammates and your overall enjoyment of the team experience. Avoid making assumptions about someone\u2019s motivations or rushing to judgment; instead, approach differences of opinions with honest curiosity and compassion. Explore why you see things differently and actively listen to understand other positions and perspectives. Coming from a place of empathy does not mean allowing behaviour that negatively impacts the team to continue (that would be \u201cenabling\u201d). It means that, instead of villainizing a teammate who is not meeting expectations, you approach them with support and curiosity. This approach reinforces their value and place on the team, and helps them find ways to improve. The tools you use in providing constructive feedback must be grounded in empathy or they will fail.\r\n\r\nWatch Liane Davey\u2019s video, \u201cWhy you should care about empathy in the workplace.\u201d She explains the role of empathy in teamwork and provides specific examples, tools, and strategies.\r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/youtu.be\/2rirNoS_ghY?si=w8tV3guu5IUCnt8H[\/embed]\r\n

2. Create a Team Charter<\/h2>\r\nCreating a Team Charter<\/strong><\/a> (as described in the previous section) that defines clear expectations and processes can proactively prevent many conflicts from arising. However, ensure that you also build in clear and detailed process for handling conflict when it inevitably comes up. Conflict can act as a trigger for insecurities and avoidance. Therefore, establishing clear conflict management processes in advance that everyone can easily follow\u00a0 -- developed and approved by the whole team -- gives team members a series of concrete steps to follow to productively channel frustration, anger, and insecurity into constructive problem-solving. It also provides a mechanism for accountability. Failing to follow the processes described in the team charter \u2013 and instead indulging one\u2019s frustration and anger \u2013 breaks trust among teammates just as much as the behaviour that led to the conflict in the first place. Once you develop these protocols, be sure to follow them -- or revise them if necessary. Developing and following clear conflict management protocols allows you to approach issues professionally and constructively.\r\n

3. Build in Regular Feedback Structures<\/h2>\r\nBuilding in opportunities for regular feedback and check-ins is an important part of an effective and iterative process. Professional practice often includes providing regular constructive feedback \u2013 on colleagues\u2019 work or performance, on product designs, and about production processes. Regular team check-ins are a core practice of high performing teams that provide an opportunity for critical reflection on the team\u2019s performance and identify opportunities to improve and course correct when required. Conducting these check-ins regularly should be built into your team\u2019s processes. Without this constructive feedback mechanism, problems can fester and expand, and an issue that could have been fixed with a short conversation during a team meeting in week 3 of the project becomes a crisis threatening to derail the team at the end of the project.\r\n\r\nIan Chisolm\u2019s Feedback Model [3] offers a structured tool for providing reflective feedback regularly so that teams can address \u2018tricky\u2019 situations before they become significant problems. Try the exercise below for an example of how to conduct a structure reflection that elicits useful feedback from all team members that can move the team forward.\r\n
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EXERCISE 4.4 - <\/strong>Conducting a Structured Team Check-In<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n\r\nAfter your team has completed a milestone like submitting an assignment, hold a meeting to review how the process of developing, finalizing, and submitting your assignment went. Have team members individually jot down notes addressing the following questions, and then take turns sharing their answers:\r\n