Worksheet 5: Productive Conflict
01 / 05
High Performance Leadership Teams
Worksheet · Success Factor 5

Productive Conflict

A reflection and discussion tool to understand your team's debate culture -- and sharpen it.

The best leadership teams disagree. Openly, directly, and without it becoming personal. If your team rarely disagrees, that's not alignment -- it's a warning sign.
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02 / 05
Part 1

How We Debate Right Now

Debate Intensity -- Mark Your Assessment
Guiding Questions
  • Where does it get personal -- and what are your own triggers in those moments?
  • What wins in your team: the strongest argument, or the biggest ego?
  • Are all team members actively included in debates -- or do some voices dominate?
Why this matters
The goal isn't more conflict. It's the right kind -- task conflict that sharpens decisions, without the relationship conflict that erodes trust. Most teams sit at 1-2 and call it harmony. It isn't.
Your Notes
03 / 05
Part 2

What's Not Being Said

Guiding Questions
  • Which conversations are happening outside the room -- in hallways, 1-1s, or after the meeting -- that should be happening inside it?
  • Which topics does your team systematically avoid? What makes them feel too risky to surface?
  • What does it cost the team when a necessary debate doesn't happen?
Body Check -- take a moment before continuing.
Think of your last heated team debate. Notice what happened in your body: Where did you feel tension? What signalled that the conversation was shifting from the issue to the person? That signal is worth knowing.
Why this matters
What a team doesn't say is often more consequential than what it does. Avoidance doesn't make hard topics disappear -- it just moves them underground, where they do more damage.
Your Notes
04 / 05
Part 3

Conditions for Better Debate

Guiding Questions
  • When someone changes their mind in your team, is it because of a better argument -- or because of status and pressure?
  • What would it take to make genuine disagreement feel safe enough to be normal?
  • Which one specific practice -- if adopted -- would most improve the quality of your debates?
RarelySometimesRegularly
Controversial positions are named openly, not hinted at
Minority views are actively invited -- not just tolerated
People genuinely change their minds based on arguments
Debates end with clarity -- not unresolved tension
The topic and the person stay separate throughout
Why this matters
Productive conflict isn't a personality trait -- it's a team skill. It can be practiced, structured, and improved.
Your Notes
05 / 05
Synthesis

Bringing It Inside the Room

Three commitments to move debate from the corridor to the room -- and keep it productive.

One topic currently living outside the room -- that we commit to surfacing inside it
One personal trigger I'm willing to name -- and watch in myself
One ground rule for how we debate -- specific enough that we can hold each other to it
Tips & Tricks
  • 'We need to have an honest conversation' is not a ground rule. 'We separate the idea from the person -- always' is.
  • The goal of debate isn't consensus. It's the best decision. Those are different.
  • If someone never changes their mind, they're not listening -- they're waiting to speak.