Building Conflict Competent Teams

By Craig E. Runde and Tim A. Flanagan

Book Overview

Understanding how to cool down, slow down, and engage the naturally occurring conflicts among team members is critical to the ultimate success of a team. With this book, your team and its members will gain a deeper understanding of how conflict emerges and how to respond in ways that will leverage conflicts to their advantage. Team members will learn the importance of establishing a safe team climate, agreeing on processes to guide interactions, and use of constructive communication skills in order to develop a conflict competent team.

As the authors say, conflict is not to be avoided, but embraced and explored. This often results in new, previously unimagined opportunities, solutions and results. The authors include stories, interviews, and examples that provide entertaining and thought provoking insights. They dedicate one chapter to techniques and processes for addressing team conflict that has gone awry. Runde and Flanagan also include useful tips and tools for assessing your team's current state of conflict competence and suggestions for addressing the challenges of today's virtual and geographically dispersed teams.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470189479
• ISBN13: 9780470189474
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Great Companion Guide - With Tools for Your Team!

Having alreadly become a fan of Runde's & Flanagan's when I read Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader (2007), I was delighted when Building Conflict Competent Teams followed in 2008. I implement Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team model to introduce teams to the concept of the Fear of Conflict as one of the five dysfunctions of teams. Then I utilize the Conflict Dynamics Profile online assessment (described in detail in Runde's/Flanagan's first book), as well as the individual and team conflict assessment tools in Building Conflict Competent Teams, to help teams assess and understand Team Member Readiness to deal with conflict, Team Readiness, Team Foundations, Team Climate and Team Communications. The book is a wonderful guide for teams and team leaders who are struggling with how to deal with team conflict. The tools at the end of the book provide the additional resources to help teams mine for conflict and overcome the fear of conflict!

Building Conflict Competent Teams

Building Conflict Competent Teams should be required reading for all supervisors, team leads, managers, project managers and executives. The book is easy to follow and very straight forward, thus making it acceptable for all levels of leadership, tenure or experience (it can also hit home with your personal life). Key take-away concepts from this book are 1) Like it or not, supervisors and leaders are ultimately responsible for managing the conflict within their teams. 2) Be honest and discuss with teams the fact that conflict will and should occur in teams. 3) Put a plan in place as to the agreed upon norms and behaviors for dealing with conflict in the team before conflict happens. 4) Realize that each individual embraces conflict differently (based on this, I would highly recommend using this book in conjunction with the 360 Conflict Dynamics Profile tool as an effective practice for teams). The tools and techniques described in this book are extremely practical, simple to follow and yet highly effective. Hats off to Runde and Flanagan for a great resource.

Exceptional resource for anyone wanting a better team experience

As a consultant to leaders and teams in conflict management, I have found nothing more useful to me, and effective for clients, than the Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP). I found the authors' first book "Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader" related the CDP theory to leadership beautifully. It has been the resource I recommend most and leaders at all levels love it! "Building Conflict Competent Teams" may be an even richer resource with in-depth knowledge of conflict theory along with practical resources teams can use right away to see results!

Practical guide for becoming a successful team leader

With due respect to Ronald Reagan I feel compelled to say to Craig Runde and Tim Flanagan "there you go again!" Building Conflict Competent Teams takes the principles of effective leadership discussed in their previous highly successful book, Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader, quite literally to a new level - the team. In their new work they bring together concepts and research regarding the fundamental dynamics of both effective teamwork and conflict between and among people. The authors draw upon illustrative and engaging stories from their extensive experience and that of numerous others to provide a clear understanding of the inevitable role conflict plays, for better or worse, in teams. In addition to offering practical strategies that can help teams at all stages deal more effectively with conflict, they provide insights and recommendations for dealing with the "special circumstances" that are likely to play a significant role on teams in the 21st century - virtual and global teams. Building conflict competent teams is a must-read for anyone responsible for leading a team of any type and highly recommended for anyone who desires to perform as a successful team member. Any organization interested in reducing dispute resolution costs or lessening risks associated with mismanaged conflict should make it required reading. Dennis M. Dennis, PhD Redmond, Washington 7/17/08