The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Organization Back on Track

by Liane Davey

Overview

More productivity. Less drama. It all starts with a healthy conflict culture.

In the modern workplace, conflict has become a dirty word. After all, conflict is antithetical to teamwork, employee engagement, and a positive company culture. Or is it?

The truth is that our teams and organizations require conflict to get things done. But we avoid conflict and build up conflict debt by deferring and dodging the difficult decisions. Our organizations are paying the price—becoming less productive, less innovative, and less competitive. Individuals are paying, too—suffering from overwhelming workloads, endless drama, and sleepless nights.

In The Good Fight, Liane Davey shows you how to create the productive conflict your organization needs to get along and get stuff done. Drawing on her twenty-year career as an advisor to the C-Suite, Davey shares real-world examples and practical tools you and your team can use to handle even the most contentious conflicts as allies—instead of adversaries. Filled with strategies you will use again and again, The Good Fight is an essential field guide for leaders at all levels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781989025208
Publisher:	Page Two Books, Inc.
Publication date:	03/26/2019
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	373,408
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dr. Liane Davey is a New York Times Bestselling author, a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, and the host of the ChangeYourTeam blog. As the co-founder of 3COze Inc., she advises on business strategy and executive team effectiveness and has worked with executives at companies such as Amazon, Walmart, Aviva, TD Bank, and SONY PlayStation. Liane has a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology and has served as an evaluator for the American Psychological Association’s Healthy Workplace Awards. Liane is married to her business partner, Craig, and they have two teenaged daughters.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: The Case for Conflict

Chapter 1: Conflict Debt

The Importance of Conflict

Conflict Debt

Identify the Conflict Debt in Your Business

The Interest

Conflict Debt in Your Teams

The Cost to You Personally

Time to Make a Payment

Chapter 2: Conflict Aversion and Avoidance

What is Conflict Aversion?

Where Does Conflict Aversion Come From?

Conflict Aversion versus Conflict Avoidance

Chapter 3: A New Conflict Mindset

The Case Against Conflict

Kind is The New Nice

Get Off the Sidelines

Work Through the Emotion

Speak Truth to Power

A New Mindset

Part II: The Conflict Code

Introduction

Chapter 4: Establish a Line of Communication

Engage Early

Building Trust

Increasing Your Trust in Others

Chapter 5: Create a Connection

Allies Not Adversaries

Facts Don’t Solve Fights

Insights from Information

Follow the Emotion

Going for Gold: Uncovering People’s Values and Beliefs

The Benefits of Getting to the Values

Creating a Connection

Chapter 6: Contribute to a Solution

Problems Not Solutions

Two Truths

Root Cause

Question the Impact

Hypotheticals

Own the Misunderstanding

Common Criteria

Part III: Codifying Conflict

Chapter 7: The “U”

The U Tool

Common Issues

Other Issues to Explore

Using the U with the Government Team

Chapter 8: Normalize Tension

The Tarp

Learning from the Tarp

Common Issues

Chapter 9: The Conflict Habit

The Conflict Habit

Habit #1: Clarify Expectations

Habit #2: Introduce Diversity

Habit #3: Improve your feedback

Habit #4: Use humor and code words

Habit #5: Encourage productive conflict in meetings

Part IV: Try This at Home

Chapter 10: Try This at Home

Productive Conflict with Partners

Raising Conflict-resilient Kids

Volunteer Teams And Everywhere Else

Appendices

Appendix A: How to Fill Out the U Template

Appendix B: How to Fill Out the Tarp Template

Acknowledgements

References

Editorial Reviews

In this terrific book, Liane Davey delivers a surprising and bracing message: Conflict is good for us. It can improve performance, help teams bond, and enrich the workplace. What matters is how you harness conflict to address tough topics and make hard decisions. If you feel like your organization is mired in a rut, you might need a good fight—and you definitely need The Good Fight.”
—DANIEL H. PINK, author of When and Drive

“Liane Davey has long been a secret weapon of the C-Suite. With The Good Fight, any leader can learn how to get their teams unstuck and working together again. Through humor and practical examples, Liane’s book shows how even the most conflict-avoidant leaders can use productive conflict to resolve the issues that have been holding them back. Save yourself the stress and start applying her methods today.”
—SHAWN LAYDEN, chairman, Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios

“For most leaders and teams, conflict is treated as something to avoid at all costs—instead of a path toward greater understanding, engagement, and success. Through practical examples, Davey gives us the right words so we might approach conflict as an ally rather than an adversary. I highly recommend The Good Fight for anyone leading a team. As many of us would agree, normalizing healthy conflict in the workplace is something that is long overdue.”
—DR. MARLA GOTTSCHALK, industrial/organizational psychologist and LinkedIn Influencer

“The Good Fight is an essential field guide that any leader can use to prevent drama before it starts. Davey provides practical and repeatable processes you can use to disarm people’s egos, resolve the conflicts on your team, and restore sanity to your organization.”
—CY WAKEMAN, drama researcher, New York Times–bestselling author of No Ego, and founder of reality-based leadership

“Whether you’re an organization of 10 or 10,000, the best solutions emerge when people feel comfortable sharing their ideas, even when what they have to say challenges the status quo. In The Good Fight, Davey shows leaders how to facilitate the productive, healthy conflict that’s needed for teams to fully engage and give their best to the organization.”
—HOWARD BEHAR, former president, Starbucks International, and author of It’s Not about the Coffee: Lessons on Putting People First from a Life at Starbucks

“We feel the pain of having a conflict immediately. But the pain of avoiding a conflict is insidious and invisible, like a toxic gas. In The Good Fight, Liane Davey shows us how to clear the air without causing an explosion.”
—KIM SCOTT, New York Times–bestselling author of Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss without Losing Your Humanity

“Growing up among eight siblings, my mother always taught me to ‘use my words, not my fists’ whenever there was conflict. This advice not only helped me out of a jam, but taught me not to back down if things needed to be said. Productive conflict resolution had begun! In Liane Davey’s new book, The Good Fight, she uses her twenty-five years of team-building experience to effectively teach people how to resolve conflict the right way—head on! Her practical strategies are purposeful and wise, and will help create healthy habits, build trust within your team, and increase the bottom line! An excellent read!”
—DAVID M.R. COVEY, coauthor of Trap Tales: Outsmarting the 7 Hidden Obstacles to Success

From the Publisher