Do you have enough conflict in your organisation?

Or, are you in conflict debt?
 
To be in conflict debt is a high cost to any organisation because it means important decisions and actions are not taken, there is division throughout the company, and a toxic work environment is experienced by all.
 
Conflict is often perceived as a negative, with ideas of people shouting at each other, but this is just one example of conflict, and with unregulated people. Conflict, essentially, is about meeting each other with our differences, and summarised well in the Merriam Webster dictionary:
 
 ‘The struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, wishes or external or internal demands’ Meriam Webster
 
Common conflicts are when the organisation is faced with more than one priority, when a gap within the organisation or risk to the organisation is recognised but not discussed, and with giving feedback that people do not want to hear.

Many people feel afraid to raise these concerns because they prefer to avoid the challenge of conflict, because it feels uncomfortable or due to personal and common fears, such as rejection, dismissal, strong emotion or not being liked. However, the consequence of avoiding conflict is to amount conflict debt, and this is far worse. When people avoid conflict, it is redirected to become an internal battle that breeds only suffering for people, while embedding conflict debt into daily  life.
 
What does conflict debt look like?

• Failure to prioritise: when members of the c-suite have different needs, wants and priorities, rather than face challenging discussions, multiple priorities are demanded from the business, generating confusion, lack of focus, overwhelm and burnout.
• Working in Silos: when the company is divided into teams working to different priorities, silos will form, and in addition, when teams avoid challenging conversations with each other, the silo culture is further embedded
• Failure to review and learn: When the elephant in the room is ignored, no time is given to review what is happening within the organisation and why, because to do so would mean having difficult conversations.
• Poor behaviour is tolerated: confronting bad behaviour often means having a difficult conversation. When this doesn’t happen, even when the cultural objective is to be accepting, inclusive, positive and unified, the desired vision cannot be realised, because the blockers are ignored and behaviours that conflict with the organisational values continue to be allowed.
• Trust is lost: to choose to engage in conflict is to be empowered; to be confident in yourself, your role and your decisions, confident to raise concerns, identify problems, have difficult conversations and be vulnerable. When leaders avoid conflict, trust, faith and confidence in them is diminished, and this has a ripple effect.
• Burnout: when there are multiple priorities, the workload of those shouldering responsibility for realising the associated objectives becomes insurmountable, and due to avoidance of conflict, and often at the same time a dedication to the work, senior leaders and mangers may face burnout.

 
How do you resolve conflict debt and get better at conflict?
The answer, is to learn how to speak your truth while owning your power.  I shall be writing about this in my next post.
 
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