Community. Conflict. Consensus.

Conflict can bind or break your team. Great teams manage—and even encourage—constructive conflict. Why? Conflict is the nexus of creativity, where two old ideas collide to create a new one. How do you produce creativity from conflict? First, build community within your team. Your team must be a safe space for discussing divergent ideas. Second, encourage “naked conversations,” but with ground rules such as ‘never go after anyone when they’re down’ and ‘criticize ideas not people.’ Finally, always conclude with consensus. The best idea wins. Everyone supports it, even if it wasn’t their own: Discuss. Decide. Support.
 
“A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.”
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, German writer and statesman