An Agile team is a body of experts from diverse fields working together to develop efficient software. It is a known fact that whenever people are working together towards a common goal, chances of conflict arising is quite certain. Conflicts or dysfunction within a team should be handled with great care as they might cost you the team itself. In this article, we shall see the various ways to handle team conflict and the dysfunction behaviour within a team. If you are experiencing such conflicts within your Agile team, then reading this article would do you good.
Initiate the Conversation
Being the leader, if you are experiencing a conflict of interest or any kind of dysfunction in your team, then you should be the one who initiates the crucial conversation amongst team members. Remember, discussions direct conflict towards a solution. However, if you ignore or delay the initiation of a conversation among the affected member’s parties, it shall impact overall team morale in a very critical manner subsequently.
Offer Conflict Resolving Sessions
Akin to personal life, we often need some professional advice while working in a team to make our relationship more cohesive and to instil motivation within the team. If you feel that your team requires professional intervention to look at things differently, then you can seek external help from competent agencies to address your need.
Promote Shared Vision and Goals
In Agile teams, if members set their personal goals over team goals, then conflicts or dysfunction is very likely to occur. As a team leader, you need to direct your team towards greater goals and a common shared vision. If all members work together to achieve a single shared goal, conflicts are least likely to exist.
Allow room for Positive Conflicts
We are not at all saying that there should be zero conflict in a team. The difference of opinions and professional disagreement among team members on functional matters is the sign of a healthy working team. Offering a difference of opinion and agreeing to disagree results in fresh ideas. As far as conflict is healthy and demonstrated over the table, it helps in building overall team morale and engaging the team towards high performance.
Focus on Equality
As an Agile team is made of the member of various departments, they possess expertise in different fields. An unbiased and fair approach to handling team member concerns creates a sense of fair play and equality within the team.
Accountability
An Agile team would be less involved in conflicts, leg pulling and backstabbing if all of them are aware that they are accountable for their actions and choices. Most of the time, it is just one member of the team causing trouble and the others stay quiet as they do not want to sabotage their relationship with him. Such a trend leads to members of the group getting to a state of no return, resulting in a vicious backlash.
Handling conflicts and dysfunction within a team is not an easy task, as you have to handle the situation without affecting the overall efficiency and morale of the team. The issues described above, are vital aids that need to be enforced to ensure a healthy and congenial atmosphere to work in.
