We all know that working with a team brings many benefits to a project. Collaboration, new ideas, and conflict. Yes, as strange as it sounds conflict can be a benefit to a project. For one, conflict forces us to clearly articulate the benefit and thereby reconsider our current position. Conflict also can expose us to differing points of view and raise concerns that we may have either written off or not consider entirely. Finally conflict can help air issues out into the open and foster group unity by keeping differences in technical opinion from becoming personal vendettas. Conflict if handled well can help to sharpen good ideas, jettison bad ideas and force the group to prioritize what is important.
Conflict can help sharpen good ideas but forcing us to articulate them. This past week has been full of big decisions for my group. We had to finalize our tech stack, to develop a ER diagram and schema, to decide on what tasks needed to be done and who should do them, and to decide on a draft of the UI. Naturally there was conflict. First it was which tools to use. Should we hand sketching or a professional UI tool? Should we use a task management tool that we know or one that we think we may need to know in the future? Working through each of these issues forced me not just to have an opinion but also to articulate what I thought was best and why I thought it was best for our project. This forced process of articulating the benefits of a given technical choose as well as hearing myself say it allowed me an additional chance reconsider my position. In some cases I realized my case was weak and decided to change my mind in other cases I reaffirmed my position and was able to speak with greater conviction. Regardless the process of conflict forced all of us to reconsider and either sharpen or abandon our initial thoughts.
Having conflict on a team also brings new perspectives into the picture. One benefit of my current group is that there are four of us. This means that we have four different histories and four different perspectives on the best way to overcome different technical challenges. This can create conflict of course as our own bias and experiences come out in the decision making process, however, it also gives us each a chance to learn of new tools or techniques that we may not have been exposed to. Thus conflict actually can contribute to selection of better tools and to learning for all parties.
Finally conflict can help to air out differences and foster greater team unity. It is no secret that that muted anger can destroy teams and wreck any chance at a successful project. By bringing issues out into the open and facing conflict directly these issues can be defused in a professional manner.
In conclusion, conflict when handled correctly can sharpen good ideas, bring in new perspectives and foster greater team unity.