The awesome, creative power of conflict

Most people (and therefore most organisations) hate conflict. It makes them uncomfortable and It drives them into self-preservation mode because they think it means something is going wrong.

Now, if the conflict entails bullying, genuine discrimination or malpractice then of course we should shut it down immediately and permanently. Sadly though, in their righteous desire to eliminate those damaging behaviours, many organisations stumble into a monoculture where only certain kinds of thinking are allowed or promoted.

All conflict comes to be seen as wrong and eventually we start to believe that other people disagreeing with us is somehow harmful to us. The irony is that, instead of promoting diversity and mutual respect, such cultures become brittle and controlling. They end up homogenous and dull rather than diverse and vibrant.

A good analogy would be putting your Christmas dinner in the liquidiser: All the components are present but none of them are distinct or recognisable anymore. The resulting gruel has lost all its texture, colour and contrast

Culinary disasters aside, the fear of divergence is costing us money, time and progress. Problem solving, creativity and innovation all require the creative collisions between wildly differing opinions and ideas.

Diversity of thinking and opinion is fundamental to human nature and forms the bedrock of democracy. We should not fear conflict (with a small “c”) we should embrace it. Rather than trying to “protect” our people from argument and disagreement, we should learn how to build a culture that can harness the power of conflict.

Promoting values such as open-mindedness, humility, inquisitiveness, adventure, respect, debate and critical-thinking would be a good start.

Forming wildly diverse teams around a shared goal, vision or outcome is a powerful key to turning conflict into creative solutions.

Educating our teams to distinguish between a strongly held belief or opinion that differs from their own, and an offense or act of discrimination, will foster a healthy atmosphere where creative collisions can take place.

All these approaches will enable our organisations to harness and handle “low-level” conflict and turn it into a positive. Conversely, our news feeds are full of evidence that, when we lose the desire or opportunity to handle low-level conflict through debate, disagreement and argument, people’s differences can quickly escalate to the level of intolerance and violence.

So, let’s build organisations where the conflict of ideas and approaches is the norm. Where diversity is a real thing and not just a word in our company handbook. Where having a different outlook is seen as an asset not a threat.

Let’s make our companies the equivalent of a unique culinary experience rather than a bowl of gruel. Marmalade, peanut butter and pickled onion sandwich, anyone?