Relationship Conflict or Task Conflict?

Ben and Jerry's ice cream grew out of a friendship between the two founders that began in seventh grade gym class. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler can be traced back to their early twenties when they immediately hit it off in an improv class. The musical Harmony of the Beatles started even earlier when Paul McCartney was teaching John Lennon how to tune a guitar. A few years ago I surveyed hundreds of new teams in Silicon Valley on conflict several times during their first six months working together. It took months for many of the teams to make real headway on their relationship issues.