Is Unresolved Conflict Undermining Your Team?
We've all been there. That team meeting where everyone smiles politely while the elephant in the room grows larger by the minute. Or that project where two key players clearly can't stand each other, but nobody addresses it. We dance around difficult conversations, hoping tensions will somehow magically resolve themselves.
But here's the truth I've learned after two decades working with organizations:
What we avoid discussing doesn't disappear—it festers.
Signs that You May Have Unaddressed Conflict in Your Workplace
Trust is eroded. When team members sense unaddressed tension, they become guarded. They stop sharing ideas openly. They question motives. And teamwork begins to crumble.
Talented people don't stick around. I've seen this repeatedly. Unresolved conflict is often the invisible factor behind unexpected resignations. People rarely cite "unaddressed tension with colleagues" on exit interviews. Even if everyone around them knows the truth.
There never seems to be enough time, money, or talent. Research suggests teams in conflict spend up to 42% of their time managing interpersonal tension rather than focusing on their core work. That's nearly half your payroll going toward emotional management rather than productivity.
Innovation is stagnant. When people feel unsafe, they stop suggesting new ideas. They stick to what's safe. Your organization slowly calcifies, becoming less adaptable precisely when market conditions demand agility.
Reputations suffer. Clients, customers, and potential recruits can sense internal discord even when you think you're hiding it well. Your organization's reputation takes hits you may not even realize are happening.
Decision paralysis becomes the norm. Teams split by unresolved issues struggle to build consensus around anything significant. Critical business processes slow to a crawl.
You leave work exhausted and defeated. Unresolved conflict drains leaders because instead of focusing on strategy, decision making, and being a visionary, you must constantly be creating workarounds and trying to keep people happy.
The Path Forward
The good news? Addressing conflict constructively is a learnable skill. Navigating Challenging Dialogue® (NCD) provides a framework, process, and common language to address conflict, often at the point of inception and before it grows into a gnarly nightmare that everyone tip toes around.
The most successful organizations I've worked with no longer avoid conflict — they use the skills and tools of NCD to navigate conflict productively.
A nonprofit that I’ve worked with has trained all their senior leaders and managers to use the NCD tools to approach difficult topics, navigate change, and are now disseminating the tools throughout the organization. A member of their staff has become an internal trainer for the organization. This person:
Introduces new staff to the process.
Provides training internally.
Facilitates conversations and coaches staff on how to use the tools to resolve conflict where it begins.
Makes sure the language and tools are in practice in meetings, brainstorming sessions, and when planning collaborative projects.
Receives on-going support and coaching from me!
What might be different in your workplace if unresolved conflict didn’t exist?
Here's the question I ask every leadership team I work with:
What's one unresolved conflict in your organization that, if addressed today, could dramatically improve team morale and productivity?
Identify it. Name it. Ask your team about it.
And then set up a time to chat with me and let’s find out what it would take to build the skills so that you and your team can address conflict where it begins and move forward with clarity, clean emotional energy, and the ability to address conflict early and often,
Schedule a time to talk with me here: https://NCDsolution.com/beth
Unresolved conflict does not need to hold you and your team back from achieving your goals!