{"id":21343,"date":"2018-04-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/conflict-is-good\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T13:32:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:32:20","slug":"conflict-is-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/conflict-is-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Encourage conflict in your meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Who is the most effective CEO? A few years ago Prof Morten Hansen and his colleagues set out to answer this question by analysing reams of stock market performance information and using this to create a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/what-top-ceo-knows-you-dont-how-have-great-fight-morten-hansen\/?trk=eml-email_feed_ecosystem_digest_01-hero-0-null&amp;midToken=AQEOPnRTv3FCRA&amp;fromEmail=fromEmail&amp;ut=2f3QS92IMgVE41\"> ranked list of 2,000 CEOs<\/a> from across the globe.\u00a0 Unsurprisingly, Steve Jobs came out top, followed shortly by Jeff Bezos.\u00a0 What did give Prof Hansen a shock was the CEO that came 16<sup>th<\/sup> out of 2,000. Ever heard of Bart Becht?\u00a0 He is CEO of UK FMCG firm Reckitt Benckiser and made it to the top 1% of global CEOs.\u00a0 How did he manage this? When Prof Hansen\u2019s curiosity drove him to jump on a plane and go and observe the company in action, he noted that the secret ingredient to RB\u2019s success was the way they encouraged constructive conflict in their meetings. See more on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/conflict-in-matrix-organizations-why-it-happens-and-how-can-we-harness-it\/\">dealing with conflict in a matrix organization<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As Hansen explains, this led to \u201cbetter, more considered decisions that ultimately led to superior performance. Many people today understandably yearn for\u00a0<em>less<\/em>\u00a0fighting, not more. But as I discovered, Reckitt Benckiser\u2019s achievement wasn\u2019t simply to fight. It was to fight\u00a0<em>well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>By interviewing employees and managers across the business, Hansen summarizes the following Reckitt Benckiser norms for \u2018fighting well\u2019:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Show up to every meeting 100 percent prepared.<\/li>\n<li>Craft an opinion and deliver it with conviction (and data).<\/li>\n<li>Stay open to others\u2019 ideas, not just your own \u2013 focus on listening not merely persuading.<\/li>\n<li>Let the best argument win, even if it isn\u2019t yours (and often it isn\u2019t).<\/li>\n<li>Feel free to stand up and shout, but never make the argument personal.<\/li>\n<li>Always listen\u2014really listen\u2014to minority views.<\/li>\n<li>Never pursue consensus for its own sake.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In our workshops on collaboration in matrix and cross-functional teams the topic of dealing with conflicting and competing priorities is often high on the learning objectives of our participants. The reality is that conflict is a natural part of the collaboration process in matrix organizations. You could even argue, that it\u2019s the point!<\/p>\n<p>In other words, if everything could be perfectly aligned you wouldn\u2019t need a matrix. Conflict therefore needs to be embraced, rather than avoided. Fight, flight or freeze should no longer be our automatic response. Instead, conflict becomes an opportunity for greater collaboration. However it needs to build on a platform of psychological safety, courage and skills.<\/p>\n<p>To help you embrace the new paradigm of \u2018conflict is good\u2019, here are 3 top tips you can try out today:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Take a breath and recognize that it\u2019s not personal. In fact it\u2019s a good sign that both parties care about the outcome.<\/li>\n<li>Turn your conflict response on its head by focusing on finding together the common goal, a shared reason for resolving this conflict. This often involves reconciling both the needs of the customer, your organization and the different functions and parties involved.<\/li>\n<li>Start the process of creating mutual understanding by reaching out to your conflict partner, asking to understand their \u2018why\u2019 behind their \u2018what\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>These three steps could be the start of your journey to becoming a top 1% CEO (or just a really great manager) by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/conflict-in-matrix-organizations-why-it-happens-and-how-can-we-harness-it\/\">managing conflict constructively<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who is the most effective CEO? A few years ago Prof Morten Hansen and his colleagues set out to answer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":21320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-blog","training-agile-and-digital","training-matrix-management","training-virtual-teams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Encourage conflict in your meetings - Global Integration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who is the most effective CEO? 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