Respond to the posts on topic: Conflict with Teams

by Sai Sudheer Bathineni 

Conflict within Teams

Think of a conflict that occurred in a team you were a part of and analyze it. What were the main sources of the conflict? What interventions can be used to improve the quality of conflict a team?

Conflict is described as a mismatch among people occurring out of a discrepancy in thinking manner, mindsets, knowledge, obligations, and every so often even experiences (Fuentes-Julio & Ibrahim, 2019). The size of the team also determines the quality of the conflict (Sidorenkov & Borokhovski, 2020). I have seen and experienced conflict in my work and in my personal life. One recent conflict occurred in my team is because we had a customer issue and we had to find the root cause for that. My colleague and I were brainstorming and came to different conclusions. My colleague said that the issue was happening because of a processing overload in the controller and my data doesn’t show this processor overload anywhere. So, I was told that the root cause of this issue was not processing overload, but the logic in the software itself. Our conflict was a healthy one and did not hinder our relationship. Finally, the root cause was found by the software team and it was a mistake in byte conversion so the variable was overflowing. To improve the quality of conflict in a team, we must create a healthy culture. Everyone in the team must treat each other with respect. The team lead has to develop rules to handle any conflict that occurs.

 

Creativity in Teams

Evaluate yourself using the three indices of creativity. What strategies can you use to enhance your creativity?

Leigh Thompson (2016) describes some popular means of calculating the resourcefulness of a group's proposals is by the use of three indices: fluency, flexibility, and originality. Fluency determines the number of suggestions a team (or a person) creates. Flexibility determines the number of kinds of suggestions an individual (or group) produces. Originality determines the potential to produce extraordinary resolutions and distinctive solutions to challenges. From the article by Leigh Thompson (2016), I was able to evaluate myself. There was a very innovation in our team when I started asking questions out of the box. I think this would constitute a very good point for these three indices. To enhance my creativity, I would ask a lot of questions. By asking the correct questions, I can make my team and myself think and come to a better logical solution.

References:

Fuentes-Julio, C., & Ibrahim, R. (2019). A human rights approach to conflict resolution. Ethics & International Affairs, 33(3), 261-273. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0892679419000352

Leigh Thompson (October, 2016). Creativity and Innovation in Teams. Leigh Thompson. Retrieved on May 3, 2021, from  http://www.leighthompson.com/images/books/mtt/MTT%20Chp%209.pdf

Sidorenkov, A. V., & Borokhovski, E. F. (2020). The role of the size of the small group and informal subgroups in intragroup conflicts. Behavioral Sciences, 10(5), 84. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs10050084