Building Conflict Competent Teams

Understanding how to cool down, slow down, and engage the naturally occurring conflicts among team members is critical to the ultimate success of a team. With this book, your team and its members will gain a deeper understanding of how conflict emerges and how to respond in ways that will leverage conflicts to their advantage. Team members will learn the importance of establishing a safe team climate, agreeing on processes to guide interactions, and use of constructive communication skills in order to develop a conflict competent team.

As the authors say, conflict is not to be avoided, but embraced and explored. This often results in new, previously unimagined opportunities, solutions and results. The authors include stories, interviews, and examples that provide entertaining and thought provoking insights. They dedicate one chapter to techniques and processes for addressing team conflict that has gone awry. Runde and Flanagan also include useful tips and tools for assessing your team?s current state of conflict competence and suggestions for addressing the challenges of today?s virtual and geographically dispersed teams.

Preface ix

1. A Team in Conflict 1

2. Where Conflict Comes From, And Why It Is So Hard To Manage 19

3. Creating the Right Climate 43

4. Constructive Communication 75

5. Techniques for Staying on Track 119

6. Special Cases: Virtual and Global Teams 171

7. Getting Started on the Road to Conflict Competence 189

Epilogue 209

Resources 213

References 217

The Authors 225

Index 227

About the Center for Creative Leadership 235

"This book sets out a comprehensive, thoroughly researched guide to the crucial and inevitable role conflict plays in a team." (Publicnet.co.uk, Tuesday 22 July 2008)

The Authors

CRAIG E. RUNDE is director of new program development at the Leadership Development Institute at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida.

TIM A. FLANAGAN is director of custom programs at the Leadership Development Institute at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida.

building CONFLICT COMPETENT TEAMS

Successful teams know that conflict is not to be avoided but embraced and explored. In fact, conflict often results in new, previously unimagined opportunities, solutions, and results.

Building Conflict Competent Teams provides team members with the skills to engage the inevitable conflicts and develop conflict competence. The authors demonstrate why conflict emerges within teams and how to respond in ways that will leverage conflicts to a team's advantage. Filled with stories, interviews, and examples that provide entertaining and thought-provoking insights about the nature of conflict within teams, this resource contains a wealth of techniques and processes for addressing team conflict that has gone awry. Runde and Flanagan also include useful tips and tools for assessing a team's current state of conflict competence and suggestions for addressing the challenges of today's virtual and geographically dispersed teams.

Building Conflict Competent Teams is a guide for anyone who wants to develop the self-control, self-awareness, and constructive behavior patterns that will enhance their team experience. Keep up with new developments in conflict competence at the authors' Web site—www.conflictcompetentleader.com.

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL^®) is a top-ranked, global provider of executive education that develops better leaders through its exclusive focus on leadership education and research. Founded in 1970 as a nonprofit, educational institution, CCL helps clients worldwide cultivate creative leadership—the capacity to achieve more than imagined by thinking and acting beyond boundaries—through an array of programs, products, and other services. Ranked among the world's top providers of executive education by BusinessWeek and the Financial Times, CCL is headquartered in Greensboro, N.C., with campuses in Colorado Springs, Colo.; San Diego, Calif.; Brussels, Belgium; and Singapore. Its work is supported by more than 500 faculty members and staff.