Managing conflict to maximise creativity From 6.00pm on Monday, November 19th 2018 Until 3.30pm on Tuesday, November 20th Background Note and Agenda for our 24th Leadership Conversation Society of Leadership Fellows, St George's House, Windsor Castle
"Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas" Donatella Versace Italian fashion designer 2 Managing conflict to maximise creativity
Conflict many of us dislike it. But this doesn t serve us as leaders Some of us hesitate at these words of Donatella Versace, don t we? Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas? Hopefully not! Why can t we have creativity without conflict? We tend to pose this question because of our emotional responses to the word conflict and what it can trigger within us. For all sorts of reasons, often more to do with our personal histories than our leadership experiences, many of us tend to associate conflict with emotional anger that can easily become unpleasant and destructive. We don t do conflict So we seek to protect ourselves from this by signalling that we don t do conflict. The rightness of this position is confirmed for us every time we are in a situation where we feel ourselves flinching the moment someone raises their voice and takes on an aggressive tone. If that s conflict, we don t want anything to do with it! It s an understandable response. But it doesn t get us very far as leaders, does it? Reframing conflict Hence the thinking behind this Leadership Conversation: We need to find ways of reframing conflict so that we can transform it into a creative ideas-building process, and minimise the danger of some becoming overly aggressive and causing others to switch off. Managing conflict to maximise creativity 3
No longer being seen as conflict-averse As we explore this theme we hope to draw out some of the dangers inherent to a leader being seen as conflict-averse. The unintended consequences of others protective behaviours Once the people around us regard us as conflict-averse, they will often adopt all sorts of protective behaviours to screen us from knowing about conflicts that they think might upset us. The justification they give themselves and others is that we have made clear that we don t like conflict, so they re simply respecting the signals that we re giving out. In the process, we can find that some vital intelligence is withheld from us because of our dislike of anything that smacks of conflict. Compromising our "early warning system" If this happens, we can quickly find that we have compromised our early warning system and are ill-prepared if something goes badly wrong. Hence the importance of this challenge for us as leaders: â To transform conflict from an experience that can easily become mutually destructive into one that is, instead, mutually reinforcing and good for business. 4 Managing conflict to maximise creativity
Assessing the benefits of constructive conflict During our discussions, we hope to spend some time drawing out the benefits that can be gained from constructive conflict. For example, there is little doubt that - managed the right way - the stresses and pressures involved in sharing differences of opinion are important to sharpening our judgements as leaders and rooting out sloppy thinking. Agreeing ground rules In order to gain these benefits, there is much to be said for agreeing a small number of ground rules at the beginning of a meeting to keep out of the room any behaviours that are disrespectful and demeaning of others, so that you can really concentrate on drawing out the creative possibilities that emerge through a conflict of ideas. We will consider what these ground rules might be, and offer three practical suggestions on page 11 of this Note. No single ticket As in all of our Leadership Conversations, we will be careful to ensure that everyone joining us can tailor your personal take-aways according to your own needs as a leader. There is no single ticket that can enable leaders to manage conflict in a way that maximises creativity. We each need to find our own distinctive way, and through this Conversation hope to support each other in doing just that. Managing conflict to maximise creativity 5
Failing to engage in conflict is a terrible decision, one that puts our temporary comfort and the avoidance of discomfort ahead of the ultimate goal of our organisation. Patrick Lencioni Author & thought leader on leadership 6 Managing conflict to maximise creativity
A Conversation in three parts Part 1 TRUST As we build trust among ourselves as a group, we will ask how we currently position ourselves in relation to conflict. Do we each see ourselves - as conflict avoiders or conflict seekers? - or somewhere between the two? Our opening challenge for small (standing) groups:??? How do those who work most closely with you view your ability to manage conflict? For example, Do they see you as someone who engages with conflicts of opinion in an open way? Or do they see you as a leader who tends to have already made up your mind on key issues and is quick to resist anyone challenging your position?? Or do they see you as someone who finds conflict difficult and will want to take the discussion offline the moment there is any sign of disagreement? This first Part of our Conversation will take us through to the Tuesday morning, when we will progress to Part Two: Managing conflict to maximise creativity 7
Part 2 CONNECT We put this second Part under the banner of our guiding principle that we all seek to connect with each other at Leadership Conversations. Now that we are all experiencing trust among us building to a higher level, it makes it possible for us to connect with each other s stories and take away so much more shared learning. Below are our proposed questions for this round of small groups, subject of course to us fine-tuning them at the time:?? Can you recall a conflict of ideas that you have been involved in in the past year or so, when the outcome was more useful than you thought it might be while the conflict was underway? Looking back on that experience, what would you say were the one or two factors that explain this positive outcome? After groups we will ask some of you to capture the most useful insight that you took from one of the stories told by another member of your group. So often in our Leadership Conversations, we find that the key to our collective creativity is our capacity to connect with the stories that other Leadership Fellows share - and draw out the insights that can often be sharper for someone hearing the story for the first time. 8 Managing conflict to maximise creativity
Preparing for the stretch We then take these insights into the third Part of the Conversation, when we support each other in going for the stretch. This is only possible once we have built really high levels of trust and connection across the group. In many ways, this third Part is the most powerful part of the Conversation. Everything up to now has been about enabling us to become that much braver in our thinking when we reach this stage, so that we are all prepared to take risks in trying out ideas on each other in ways that most of us would never dream of doing in a traditional conference. The whole point about the process that we go through together is that we want to make it as easy as possible for each of us to test out ideas, letting go of any that don t sound as good as we hoped they might do whilst building on those that sound as if they have real potential. Please rest assured that if you try out an idea on us and subsequently feel that you went a little over the top, it will be easy to tone down the idea and make it that much safer. It s more creative working this way than trying to risk up an idea that started off as a safe proposition! Managing conflict to maximise creativity 9
Part 3 STRETCH Our thinking at present is that we should ask ourselves the following question when we break for small working groups over lunch on the Tuesday:? What do we now see as the key practices that we wish our top team/s to adopt, and the key leadership behaviours that we intend to adopt ourselves, to enable us to manage conflicts of ideas in a way that maximises creativity? We then ask you to bring back your personal answers to this question when we return to working as a single group after lunch. To help bring this question to life, we set out on the next two pages some examples of the sorts of ground rules and leadership behaviours that could support you in managing conflict to maximise creativity. key team practices & your key leadership behaviours 10 Managing conflict to maximise creativity
Three examples of team ground rules for managing conflict to maximise creativity STRETCH Question before challenge No-one can challenge what someone else has said without first asking a question to draw them out more and understand their position better Connect not convince Whenever we discuss issues where there is no automatic right answer, we would rather achieve a strong connection with others than persuade them that we are right and they are wrong Clarity before consensus We would rather take a decision on the basis of a majority view, with the minority feeling that they have truly been heard, than create a superficial consensus that papers over the cracks Managing conflict to maximise creativity 11
Three examples of leadership behaviours for managing conflict to maximise creativity STRETCH The conflict-averse leader: You know I find conflict difficult, but please don t shield me from bad news. I might need to ask one of you to handle a really tricky situation for me, if need be but never ever dilute the truth for the sake of keeping me happy! The conflict-prone leader: If we re having a debate and you think I m tending to polarise the discussion, then say so. Don t hold back from challenging me, either although I quite like the idea of you asking me a question first before telling me that I m overarguing my position! The Chair of a Board addressing a reflector John, you became very unhappy at our last meeting and said you wanted more time to reflect before we agreed our threeyear plan. I now want to suggest that in future we adopt a two-stage approach for key decisions. At the end of stage one we take a tentative decision, to see where we are then. We then sleep on it and come together again soon afterwards to ask whether we want to confirm it as a definitive decision. This way, no-one will feel they re being bounced. 12 Managing conflict to maximise creativity
Continuing with the stretch STRETCH These group discussions over lunch should help us create a really strong menu of ideas and options once we are together again as one single group. As we share the ideas that we have each come up with, we hope that we will be ready to respond to other Leadership Fellows by building on their ideas and suggesting any possible variations that come to mind in the moment. This is the stage in previous Conversations when some Fellows have achieved real breakthroughs in their thinking as a result of others diving in with their ideas and advice. Final session Each sharpening up three stretching resolves In our final round of small groups at 2.15pm we will break you into groups of two to support each other in coming up with three stretching resolves that you bring back to the final session and share with the rest of us. It is remarkable how much we can all gain from this final hour together, not least because our no recycling ground rule means that it s not an option for anyone to repeat anything that you have already shared with the group! no recycling ground rule Managing conflict to maximise creativity 13
CONNECT TRUST STRETCH TRUST CONNECT CONNECT STRETCH TRUST STRETCH Video link-up: February 19, 2019 In the final minutes of the Conversation we will also arrange a time early next year for a follow-up video link-up to swap notes. This will give us all a chance to hear how much progress everyone has made in taking forward your resolves. How have you acted on your resolves to become a better leader in managing conflict to maximise creativity and where have you got stuck? For previous video link-ups we have found that in one hour we can cover a tremendous amount of ground. Usually Fellows share a very brief email beforehand just giving some sort of update on how you have taken forward your resolves, and we take it from there! Suggested time for Video Link-up: 10.00 to 11.00am on Tuesday, February 19th 2019 14 Managing conflict to maximise creativity
Agenda Monday, November 19th 2018 2.30pm+ You are welcome to check into your room in St George s House 4.30pm 5.05pm 6.00pm in the Vicars' Hall 7.30pm 7.40pm 9.45pm Tea in the House for those joining Evensong in the Chapel Evensong (optional) Refreshments, then start of the Conversation. After agreeing our guiding principles for the Conversation, we break into small (standing) groups to consider our opening challenge for Part One (page 7) After feedback and debate, we agree on one or two key issues to explore over dinner Free time/ drinks until dinner is served promptly at 8.15pm Private floodlit tour of St George s Chapel (optional) Tuesday, November 20th 7.45am Breakfast is served in St George s House 8.45am We hear any overnight reflections before we move on to Part Two (page 8) in the Vicars' Hall and join new standing groups. Back in the circle we hear what insights you take from the experiences of others in your group, and how you think you might begin to apply them to your own role in managing and leading conflicts of ideas from now on. At around 12.15 we move on to prepare for our lunchtime groups when we will engage with the questions that open Part 3 (on page 10) 12.30pm 1.15pm 2.15pm 2.30pm A hot buffet lunch is served in the Vicars Hall and we work together in our groups We hear your feedback from groups, and then break into two s for our final round of small groups in which you each sharpen up your top three personal resolves to share with us in the final session Last round of small groups. Tea, coffee and cake available In this final hour, we ask you to adopt a ground rule of no recycling, under which we all agree not to repeat views that we have already shared in the Vicars Hall. As we share our resolves there is time for positive challenge across the group before we draw together our key outcomes and conclude this Leadership Conversation on the dot of 3.30pm Managing conflict to maximise creativity 15
Swedish proverb Rough waters are truer tests of leadership. In calm water every ship has a good captain. 16 Managing conflict to maximise creativity