We bring all of our life experiences into the workplace. Learning early to avoid conflict or swallow our opinions or feelings can lead to passive-aggressive behavior in workplace teams. Whether a team member, team leader or team supporter, this article brings perspective to dousing conflicts directly.
Source: Harvard Business Review, January 25, 2016.
The majority of teams I work with have a conflict problem: They have too little conflict. They seldom express dissent, diversity of opinion, or frustration. Instead, they act passive-aggressively toward one another, leaving themselves in a quagmire of unresolved issues. Passive-aggressiveness is simply the indirect expression of hostility.
INSIGHTS: This article is appropriately timed given the recent media treatment of millennials. The old adage, “the first one to speak loses,” does not foster productive conflict management to surface issues that would otherwise go underground. In fact, much of society would prefer to avoid conflict instead of dealing with it proactively. Triangulation is one communication method to diffuse the emotion and place the issue into a neutral position for solution.