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realize that conflict is an inevitable aspect of high-performance teamwork. Second, they deal with conflict proactively, meaning that they develop procedures and practices to deal with it before it emerges. Groups that improve or maintain top performance over time share three conflict resolution best practices:

(1) they focus on the content of their interac- tions, rather than the delivery style (i.e., tone); (2) they explicitly discuss reasons behind work assignment decisions; and (3) they assign work to members who have the task expertise rather than by other means, such as volunteerism or convenience.109

109Behfar, Peterson, Mannix, & Trochim, “The critical role of conflict resolution in teams.”

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