Fear of Conflict Behavior & Providing Sufficient Protections

“Conflict is an escalation of a disagreement…characterized by… conflict behavior…actively trying to damage one another.”

^{[Prof Michael Nicholson – Conflict (process) — Wikipedia]}

“Psychological safety is an atmosphere where one can take chances……….without fear and with
sufficient protection.”

^{[Edgar Schein & Warren Bennis 1965 – Psychological Safety – Wikipedia]}

We all seem to have a primal fear of conflict and the behavior that leads to it. By using the following protections and applying these two definitions to workplace teams, one can tackle this fear of conflict behavior and allow us to feel sufficiently protected (psychologically safe), when we disagree.

• Manage Conflict Behavior, by consensus – using the SpatzAI Team Charter.
• Moderate Conflict Behavior, by accounting for it – using the  SpatzAI 3-step intervention.
• Mitigate Conflict Behavior, by exposing it if required – using the SpatzAI peer-review network.
• Monitor Conflict Behavior, by collating its real-world data – using the SpatzAI App and Machine Learning.

We believe that providing team members with these sufficient protections, rather than just cliches, and platitudes, it would give them a level of psychological safety needed to radically improve team collaboration.