“Nice” teams get mediocre results. Teams that know how to ’stir up’ healthy conflict get ‘great’ results. Controversial statement but let me clarify. “Nice” team members don’t show weakness because” you never let them see you sweat” or be wrong. Likewise “nice” teams don’t disagree openly.  Here is an illustration: One of the “nice” team members suggests a low sales call goal. The suggestion is: only make two new sales calls a week. The team agrees. Each member of the five-member team makes the goal and 10 new sales calls are made for the team.

Goal accomplished.  But was it the goal you wanted?

Your data shows the average number of calls it takes to get a close ratio of two clients per associate is a minimum of ten calls per associate. The person that had the data didn’t bring it up because they didn’t want conflict. The person that suggested the goal didn’t want to appear weak so he proposed an achievable goal.  

 Action: Promote intelligent conflict by having the requirement that team members must communicate team decisions to their staff within2 hours of the meeting. This request will often drive team members to bring up any concerns that have not been clarified.

In the early stages of team development, you may want to develop a creative way to signal when the “nice” member shows up. Did you take the initiative and stir things up?  

 To your success, Stephanie