Why Team Conflict Occurs in Business

Team conflict is a problem within most companies. Why does it occur? What are its root causes? Watch this short video and learn how to overcome it.

Reduce Team Conflict – Sharing Perceptions at Work

Team conflict is normal. But it shouldn’t be. There are many techniques a business team can share to reduce team conflict. The first is to  learn how to share perceptions so that conflict is not the result!

If your training programs don’t manage the perceptions of your team to reduce team conflict and create common communication values, there will always be an excuse for ego to compete for dominance in your business. And that’s not healthy…

A lot of training gives people skills. Some of them are useful and some of them not so much. However, the most useful skill anyone can learn is how to manage their ego.

Reduce Team Conflict – How Ego Loves to Dominate

Our ego loves us to be right. It loves power and influence. It wants to win competitions. In short, it is the creator of all team conflict.

This is not a solely a business situation. It is a world situation. If people do not effectively manage their ego in life, they will contribute to to a competitive and ultimately conflict-driven society.

In business, the ego plays its part in all team conflict. The difference in business is that there is a fundamental hierarchy that denotes one person being in authority over another. Sadly, this is the perfect scenario for ego to really enjoy itself. And it frequently does.

Reduce Team Conflict – Ego is the Biggest Business Productivity Problem

In my experience ego is the number one issue affecting the efficiency, productivity and culture of a business. It determines how trusted or controlled people are. It builds a culture of fear or of freedom. And it decides whether there is empowerment or inertia in the team.

The ego always finds excuses for its way of behaving. And the most powerful people in a company have the biggest excuses!

Underpinning the ego are the beliefs and opinions that a person has about who they are. It decides what they are good or bad at, what they know about the world, their competencies and their expectations. In short, ego is their view of the world: their perception.

Reduce Team Conflict – A Better Business Communication Strategy

In order to reduce team conflict in a business and therefore increase productivity, we must find a way to manage perceptions better. This means sharing ideas in a communication environment that reduces fear and threat and is inclusive of everyone in the team.

This is achieved by setting up a communication strategy within the business that moderates the way people communicate. This strategy can help to reduce the tendency of leaders to impose their will on others. Also, it reduces the tendency t dominate when a collaborative effort might be a more productive way of working.

Managing perception and ego is the ultimate training strategy. It gets to the root of all problems because ego sits at the root of all problems. While it may seem a weighty issue,  managing the ego in a business actually makes perfect sense and is a lot easier and more fun than you might imagine it to be.

Without understanding that perception is the cause of all conflict that that ego sits underneath all perceptions, businesses will continue hiring the wrong people and failing to build cohesive teams.

Managing tea conflict is as easy as training a set of shared communication habits and thinking skills. These habits and skills become a part of your company culture and replace the confrontational shame and blame game that reduces morale and encourages staff turnover.

The author, Michael Paul Stephens is the founder of Provolution Consultancy, a Thailand-based corporate training business that helps companies build a better culture. His Communication programs have been put to work effectively in many organizations that are seeking a better way to build trust and respect.