Agile Coaches' Corner Logan Butler on Conflict with Civility
Joining Dan Neumann today is Logan Butler, a Senior Software Developer and Scrum Master at AgileThought, who is currently working in a scaled scrum environment!
Today, Dan and Logan will be discussing conflict with civility. Conflict within teams is inevitable — but how you choose to manage the conflict within your team is entirely within your control! In Logan’s experience as a developer and Scrum Master, he has learned that approaching conflict with civility not only helps you maintain highly positive relationships but also puts you on the right path toward building a transparent and brave team. And, as a former high school teacher, Logan has plenty of experience with conflict management. In this episode, he brings his unique perspective from his days as a teacher to his current role as a Sr. Developer to the podcast!
Tune in to learn all about how to handle conflict with civility!
Key Takeaways
What does it mean to handle conflict with civility? And what can be done to support it?
Dealing with complex situations while maintaining highly positive relationships with the people that we work with
Remembering conflict is not synonymous with angry or yelling; it is simply a problem that needs to be navigated
Empower your team through communication
Create a culture where everyone feels comfortable to speak up
Keep good working relationships with everyone on your team so they stay engaged
How to navigate conflict with civility:
If someone doesn’t want to participate, don’t force them
Lead by example and model what you want to see in your team
Explore the conflict through going through SBI feedback model (Situation-Behavior-Impact)
Utilize the Enneagram Personality Assessment tool to better understand a team member’s personality and perspective
Why is it important for teams to be able to handle conflict well?
Because conflict within teams is inevitable
It is healthy to deal civilly with conflict by not becoming affected emotionally or leave with hurt feelings
Logan’s three strategies for handling conflict with civility:
Protect your team:
Make sure everybody is treating everybody with respect, everyone is supported, and everyone is built up
Don’t support misbehavior (i.e. ignoring jokes at someone’s expense)
Have conversations to make sure everyone is included
Set up your working agreement and ground rules as a team
Look out with empathy:
Consider others’ circumstances
Use group activities to help build empathy (such as retrospectives and the True Colors Exercise)
Think from someone else’s perspective, then listen, and have a conversation
Walk humbly:
Choose to go in a situation and acknowledge you won’t have all the right answers
Choose to be a constant learner and look at every opportunity as room to learn
Always be willing to better yourself and go into conflicts looking for what you missed rather than telling the other person what should have been
If you can do these three things, you have set yourself up to walk into a conflict with a demeanor that will ultimately lead to a better resolution and less baggage
The mindset of a continuous learner:
Be proactive in the way that you act humbly by choosing not to go down a path where you become a hero of the team
If you see yourself going down the path of becoming a hero, you can choose to become a team player
Don’t measure yourself on quantitative things; your value and contribution to the team is more than you can quantifiably deliver to the team
Mentioned in this Episode:
Situation-Behavior-Impact Feedback Model (SBI)
Enneagram Personality Assessment
Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep.26: “How an Effective Leader Coaches with Joseph Carella”
Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep.20: “Dr. Jeff Thompson on Values-Based Leadership”
Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep.32: “Christy Erbeck on Courageous Leadership”
Brené Brown: The Call to Courage (Netflix Special)
Logan Butler’s Book Pick:
Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts., by Brené Brown
Want to Learn More or Get in Touch?
Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com!
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