We have long viewed conflicts as a barrier to success. However, instead of viewing it in a negative light, could conflict be the source of fuel for agile progress? On February 22nd, participants of our Agile IT Special Interest Group discussed and reflected on this question, diving into their own conflict management experiences.
With years of experience as an agile practitioner, Results Improvement Coach Joel Foner led this meeting with many thought-provoking questions and insightful perspectives on managing conflicts.
Through a mix of multiple breakout sessions and full-group discussions, participants were able to engage in many fruitful conversations in relation to conflict management. Foner asked questions to identify and solve conflicts, prompting everyone to rethink their own understanding of what “conflict” means. In this 2-hour long session, many view-changing points were raised and, by the end of it, our definition of conflict was able to be reconstructed and expanded to a more constructive idea.
Foner closed the session with the idea that instead of avoiding conflicts, we should instead build a network of conflicts that can act as data in the agile process to identify the shape of the conflict and help us see the larger issue on hand.