“Nothing great is achieved without some conflict,” says Enrique Conterno, senior vice president and president at Eli Lilly Diabetes.

“Conflict sharpens the senses; it invites full engagement in solving important problems. However, you must create more light than heat when you engage in conflict. Heat degrades the substrate of innovation, while light catalyzes it.” You learned about groupthink in Chapter 1. It describes a behavior characterized by a lack of critical thinking and extreme conformity to the values of a group.

The absence of conflict is not always a good sign, researchers believe. They point to studies of work teams in hospitals, in which the failure to speak up can lead to disastrous medical errors. Or they analyze airline crashes that can result from a felt lack of “psychological safety” that may prevent even very competent people from speaking up. Researchers also study business misconduct by corporations whose employees knew of the wrongdoing but weren’t comfortable enough to report it. Often, groupthink is the culprit.

Your Task. 

Do you agree with the preceding views on workplace conflict and groupthink? Look back at your teamwork experience and consider tensions that arose. How were they addressed and settled? Have you worked on teams that were conflict free?

Were you ever afraid to speak up? Could negative situations have been salvaged by using the tips in this chapter? Discuss these and similar questions in small groups or in front of the class. If asked, provide a written assessment of your views on workplace conflict.