By Kirstie McFarlane
At Teamery we believe that conflict in meetings is inevitable and important and has the potential to either energise or damage a team.
There are many ways to navigate towards conflict resolution in team meetings, one of which is to be as prepared as possible:
- A clear agenda in which the team can be involved in creating
- Agreed upon ways of working/rules of engagement e.g. professional behaviour at all times, listening first, no personal attacks, no interrupting whilst someone else is speaking, etc.
- Ensure that only those people who need to be at the meeting are at the meeting.
- Rotate who leads the meeting – although this democratic approach won’t work for every team, it can drive increased accountability and collaboration.
But what do you do when, despite your best efforts, conflict erupts within a team meeting?
- Listen to understand all sides of the conflict
- Determine the root cause of the conflict – professional, personal or power?
- Act as mediator rather than decision-maker – guiding the opposing parties to a shared resolution and building their conflict-resolution muscle at the same time.
- If emotions threaten to overflow, take time out to reflect and schedule a follow-up session.
Ultimately, working on your team to build a real sense of psychological safety will go a long way to ensuring that your team looks forward to challenging each other in meetings and thriving as a result of that.
What are your thoughts about conflict in team meetings? Reach us at hello@teamery.io
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