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Common goals do not imply homogeneous thinking, but they do require everyone to share a vision. Consider the two advertising executives who launched ZinePak, a company that packages CDs, glossy magazines, interviews, and merchandise that appeal to what they call “superfans.” Co-founder Kim Kaupe and Brittany Hodak shared a vision for growth, saying they would rather own “10% of a hundred million-dollar pie, than own 100% of a 5-million-dollar pie.” They also had to share the vision of control- ling 51% of their company after they appeared on Shark Tank.99

Principle 2: After the team is well designed, the team leader should use the strategy of coaching the team. Coaching the team can work only if the team is well designed. Coaching that focuses on the key performance drivers reinforces the team design. After taking over as Ford’s CEO in 2006, Alan Mulally instituted a weekly meeting, called the Business Plan Meeting (BPR) where managers presented a report on his/her areas, coded in green, yellow or red, to show whether business was on target. At the first BPR, all of Ford’s managers coded their business unit reports as green. Mr. Mulally used the meet- ings as coaching opportunities by supporting leaders who helped one another rather than focusing solely on problems within their business unit. In one meeting, the team clapped when a manager put a red flag on his own program.100

Principle 3: Coaching about conflict might engender resistance relative to dis- cussions about motivation, strategy, or leveraging talent in the team. In some cases, coaching about conflict and relationships might even backfire.101 Yet, it often can be effective for a team to develop strategies for dealing with potential future conflict pro- actively. Indeed, groups that develop norms regarding how they will manage conflict are more effective than those that do not develop norms.102 And, groups that develop collaborative conflict norms make more effective group decisions than do groups that use contending or avoidance styles. Conflict norms also carry over to affect other team activities, such as decision making that doesn’t necessarily involve conflict. Furthermore, friends are better at applying effective conflict management strategies to suit the task at hand than are teams of strangers whose conflict management approaches are less sophisticated.103

One type of intervention is structured debate. Most people, even seasoned man- agers and executives, feel uncomfortable about conflict. However, it is much easier to deal with conflict by creating a time and place for it to occur, rather than expecting it to naturally erupt. Furthermore, discussing the potential for conflict before it erupts is a lot more effective than trying to deal with it after the fact. At Southwest Airlines, leaders wanted to change a culture of “artificial harmony” among employees. So, the airline began promoting middle managers to executive positions based on that man- ager’s ability to spark positive conflict among their team members. In addition, the newly

100Stallard, M.L. (2014, January 22). 7 practices of Alan Mulally that helped Ford pass competitors. Fox Business. foxbusiness.com; Boudette, N.E., Rogers, C., & Lublin, J.S. (2014, April 21). Mulally’s legacy: Setting Ford on a stronger course. The Wall Street Journal. wsj.com 101Kaplan, R. E. (1979). The conspicuous absence of evidence that process consultation enhances task performance. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 15, 346–360. 102Kuhn, T., & Poole, M. S. (2000). Do conflict management styles affect group decision making? Evidence from a longitudinal field study. Human Communication Research, 26(4), 558–590. 103Shah & Jehn, “Do friends perform better than acquaintances?” p. 205.

99Fenn, D. (2015, April 27). After landing $725,000 on ‘Shark Tank,’ 2 young founders tell all. Inc Magazine. inc.com; Inc Magazine (producer). (2015). Partners need to share a vision. inc.com

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