Conflict and Feedback

Conflict

Task versus relationship conflict

Karen Jehn, "A multimethod examination of the benefits and detriments of intragroup conflict," Administrative Science Quarterly 40(2), 1995. doi:10.2307/2393638

Task conflict (disagreement about the content of the work) can be healthy, but relationship conflict (interpersonal incompatibility, tension, annoyance) is detrimental to satisfaction and performance. "Embrace conflict" means the first kind.

Used in Two kinds of conflict, Resolve conflict between two people.

The conflict meta-analysis

Carsten De Dreu and Laurie Weingart, "Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: a meta-analysis," Journal of Applied Psychology 88(4), 2003. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.741

Across the studies they pooled, task conflict also correlated negatively with team performance on average, because it tends to turn into relationship conflict. "Embrace conflict" is only good advice under the condition below.

Used in Two kinds of conflict.

Psychological safety

Amy Edmondson, "Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams," Administrative Science Quarterly 44(2), 1999. doi:10.2307/2666999

Amy Edmondson, The Fearless Organization, 2018. Amazon

A team-level belief that it's safe to ask questions, admit mistakes, and disagree. The 2018 book adds the two-by-two against performance standards: both high is the learning zone, safety without standards is comfort, standards without safety is anxiety. The one-question test is "how is bad news received?"

Used in Two kinds of conflict, Diagnose what's broken in an org.

When task conflict helps

Bret Bradley, Bennett Postlethwaite, Anthony Klotz, Maria Hamdani, and Kenneth Brown, "Reaping the benefits of task conflict in teams: the critical role of team psychological safety climate," Journal of Applied Psychology 97(1), 2012. doi:10.1037/a0024200

Task conflict improved performance in teams with high psychological safety and hurt it in teams without. Build the safety first, then ask for the disagreement.

Used in Two kinds of conflict.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, 2002. Amazon

Dysfunction stacks: absence of trust, then fear of conflict, then lack of commitment, then avoidance of accountability, then inattention to results. A business fable rather than research, but the ordering matches what the conflict literature found the hard way.

Used in Two kinds of conflict, Trust, agency, and latency.

Contempt

John Gottman, Why Marriages Succeed or Fail, 1994. Amazon

Of the four behaviors that predict a relationship failing (criticism, defensiveness, stonewalling, contempt), contempt is the strongest. The research is on couples; the extension to teams is mine, and it matches what I've seen: one person who treats teammates with contempt drives out the people you want to keep.

Used in Handle a performance problem.

Feedback and hard conversations

The ladder of inference

Chris Argyris, Reasoning, Learning, and Action, 1982. Popularized in Peter Senge et al., The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, 1994. Amazon

People climb from observed data to a belief about someone's intent in one step and then select future data to confirm it. "She didn't reply to my PR for two days" is an observation; "she doesn't respect my work" is five rungs up.

Used in Resolve conflict between two people.

Difficult Conversations

Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, 1999. Amazon

Every hard conversation is three: what happened, how people feel, and what it says about who they are. The third is the unspoken one and the one generating the heat.

Used in Resolve conflict between two people.

Getting to Yes

Roger Fisher and William Ury, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, 1981. Amazon

Interests, not positions. "I want her to stop blocking my PRs" has one solution; "I want to ship without a three-day review cycle" has several.

Used in Resolve conflict between two people.

Nonviolent Communication

Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, 1999 (3rd edition 2015). Amazon

Observation, feeling, need, request. In work contexts I replace the feeling with a concrete effect ("when reviews sit for three days, the sprint goal slips"), which Rosenberg would object to.

Used in Give negative feedback, Resolve conflict between two people.

Situation, behavior, impact

Center for Creative Leadership, the SBI feedback model. ccl.org

Describe the situation, the observable behavior, and its impact. The discipline is in the middle step: "you were dismissive" is an interpretation, "you interrupted three times" is a behavior.

Used in Give negative feedback.

Radical Candor

Kim Scott, Radical Candor, 2017. Amazon

Care personally and challenge directly. Caring without challenging is "ruinous empathy," which is what the feedback sandwich actually is.

Used in Give negative feedback.