Three types of conflict brought to life

If you’ve never experienced conflict on your team then – lucky you – but sorry to burst your bubble – it’s only a matter of time. It can happen in the most harmonious of places.

Here are some high profile examples of team conflict and its causes. When driver partnerships in Formula 1 go bad!

Prost v Senna – Ethical Differences

Ayrton Senna & Alain Prost

One from the history books this is a good example of ethical differences. Alain Prost and the great Ayrton Senna were team mates back in the 1980s and beating the rest of the field.

Prost said:

“It was in Imola in ’89 that the relationship between us disintegrated. We qualified one-two, and Ayrton suggested we shouldn’t fight at the first corner, Tosa, on the opening lap; whoever got there first would have the position. He led away, with me second, but then the race was stopped when Gerhard Berger had a big crash. On the restart, I got ahead–and at Tosa, Ayrton passed me!

Afterward, he argued that it wasn’t the start: It was the restart, so the agreement didn’t apply!”

Senna’s skullduggery left a nasty taste in Prost’s mouth, it led to one of the most famous team conflict situations and acrimonious splits in Formula 1.

Schumacher v Barrichello – Favouritism

Schumacher gives Barrichello the winners trophy on the podium

Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello had the fastest car in the field for five years when they raced for Scuderia Ferrari. They finished first and second in too many races to count. The trouble was, their racing wasn’t fair.

Everyone knew that Michael was ‘Driver #1’ and despite the fact that Rubens was fast and thrashing the rest of the field, he was often told to move over and let Schumacher win.

The blatant favouritism shown by Ferrari resulted in a somewhat awkward relationship between the pair that continued after both had left the team. Bizarrely it was Schumacher who tried to run Barrichello off the road into a concrete wall at over 300kph/185mph in 2010.

However, our lesson here is that favouritism destroys team harmony and leads to conflict, and in this scenario the fans hated it too.

Hamilton v Rosberg – Bitter Rivalry

Hamilton and Rosberg crash at the Spanish GP in 2016

The most recent of our examples is that of four time world champion Lewis Hamilton, and his fellow Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg. This pair grew up racing each other and were great friends when they first started driving together in Formula 1.

Both talented drivers, their rivalry became toxic as they fought against each other to win the world championship.

As usually happens in motor racing, both drivers from the same team find themselves fighting over the same piece of track. The golden rule however is that you must NEVER, take your team mate out of the race.

In 2016, the volcano erupted when the drivers came together at the Spanish Grand Prix and both of them crashed out of the race. Even though they knew that the team was more important, their heated competition boiled over, and the team lost out.

But how do you deal with team conflict?

In Formula 1 it is arguably simpler to deal with these issues. The kind of sanctions and team orders that can be introduced to force drivers to either get over their differences or comply with the rules are very compelling. However, the same principles apply in business.

Let’s explore three steps you can take as a people manager to resolve team conflict:

Acknowledge that there is an issue

Don’t shy away from difficult conversations or the inconvenient truth. Burying your head in the sand will not address team conflict. Only a weak manager will try to avoid dealing with the situation.

First talk to everyone involved and put yourself in their shoes, you must be able to see it from their point of view. There will be facts that you don’t know about. Ask probing questions to tease them out.

Have the courage to ask the most difficult of questions: Is this issue being caused by your own actions?

How you go about understanding the root cause depends on the gravity of the situation. Minor issues might be better dealt with in a group conversation, but if it’s more serious then you may need to go around to everyone involved separately to get their point of view.

Usually the conflict will be between a couple of factions, this could manifest as person v person, group v person, or group v group. However don’t forget the bystanders, make sure you talk to those who are not involved. This will do a couple of valuable things:

1. It will let everyone know that you care about them
2. It might bring out some (perhaps more objective) facts that you don’t hear from the other parties

Develop a plan

Once you have completed your fact-finding mission, it’s time to come up with a strategy to explore and resolve it with your team. Usually there will be some kind of negotiation involved, maybe moderation, and usually a session, or multiple sessions to discuss.

Consider the following when planning a meeting:

• What personalities are involved?
• What type of gathering will work for most?
• Who needs to attend?
• Can you facilitate or do you need a moderator? Often it’s a great idea to bring in a neutral person to assist and add their objective point of view
• What rules will you need during the session?
• What is the best location and timing?
• Is there a chance you might need to impose sanctions? If so what will your options be?

It’s always sensible to run your plan by someone else to check you’ve thought everything through. Ask a fellow people manager or seek help from your HR team if you have one. If you don’t have either of these options ask a trusted, emotionally intelligent friend.

Prepare a motivational speech about the importance of resolving issues quickly. Revisit your strategic team objectives. Be ready to explain that you won’t meet these objectives if the situation does not improve, and what that would mean overall for everyone on the team.

Convene the group

When your research is done, and you’re prepared and ready to go, it’s time to commence negotiations. Timing is key, you want to address issues fast, but don’t fall into the trap of jumping in with both feet without fully understanding what is happening.

During your session:

• Be clear about the structure of the session itself and the goal you want to reach
• Outline rules that the group will be following during the conversation, particularly if you feel emotions will be running high
• Stick to timing as much as you can and don’t let people ramble on. Do acknowledge that due to the nature of the session conversations may run longer than planned, potentially you may need to extend to another session
• Keep a positive attitude
• Treat everyone truly fairly and equally

With good preparation, empathy, and structure you have the strongest chance of reaching a great outcome.

Remember:

• Dealing with conflict carefully and professionally will define your team culture
• Building an open and honest environment will help you to avoid conflict in the first place
• Sometimes it is okay to agree to disagree as long as you understand each other’s point of view

What are your thoughts on dealing with team conflict?

Let me know your thoughts on this in the comments below, I would love to hear from you.

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Bibliography:

Alain Prost on Ayrton Senna: ‘Between us, we can screw all the others!’
https://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/alain-prost-ayrton-senna-between-us-we-can-screw-all-others#ixzz5RnGfxQf4