A client asked me to identify the cause of a problem he'd been having within his company; bad results in the timely deliver of products to the customers.
As I asked him and his staff questions, participated in conversations with the players involved, put-forth some corrective suggestions, and continued to watch the results, here is what came out of this tough, but real-life problem;
1. there was a key vendor involved with personnel on site at the client's company. The client and the vendor's personnel got along well and truly wanted to be a good team
2. the vendor personnel are responsible for a very critical component of the product.
3. the vendor personnel were told by their management to not "complain" to their client (my client) about anything, but to keep his/her head down and just get the job done. The problem that should have been brought forth were about hand-offs and communitcation.
4. some company team members participated in covering up the problems because of the vendor's mandate about "complaining."
The result..........bad delivery of product due to dysfunctional teamwork, loss of business, and strife between the client and vendor.
Perfect example of Lincioni's Five Dysfuntions of a Team.
The clean-up of this problem took some time and 2 of the 7 people involved had to be replaced; one from company and one from vendor. Both of these people were good employees and wanted to contribute but had a hard time backing up.
Again, the problem was caused primarily because everyone avoided conflict, though the conflict ended up happening anyway. It always does - remember the old Vavoline commercials? Conflict says "pay me now or pay me more later (not exactly what was said in the commercial but you old-timers get the picture).
Conflict happens; always has, always will. Besides reading Lincioni's book, here are some basic guidelines for having smart conflict:
1. respond, don't react
2. go to the person
3. treat the event, not the person
4. expect the best
5. see clarity, ask questions
6. talk straight and leave the right impression
7. evaluate and correct rapidly
To that end.....
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