You can try fix a team. Or you can connect leadership, delivery, and people so your team moves in flow with the rest of the business.
Team conflict is messy, frustrating, and disruptive. Yet, when handled with clarity and intention, conflict between teams can become a powerful catalyst for alignment and growth.
As Amy Edmondson reminds us, “Teaming is the art of communicating and coordinating with people across boundaries of all kinds — expertise, status, and distance, to name the most important.” Surfacing and addressing team conflict is part of this work.
Patrick Lencioni also places “Fear of conflict” at the heart of his Five Dysfunctions of a Team model. When people avoid difficult conversations, problems don’t disappear - they deepen. Within a team, this is challenging enough, but when conflict emerges between teams, the impact can ripple far wider.
So - how to navigate cross-team conflict in a way that builds trust, strengthens relationships, and moves the organisation forward?
When teams are in conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of the shared purpose.
Both teams ultimately contribute to the same organisational goals — so what is the strategic aim you are both trying to achieve?
If the teams are in the same department, what’s the purpose of the department and how does working better together support this?
Make it explicit. Clarity reduces conflict.
Cross-team conflict is rarely personal. More often, it’s a signal of deeper systemic friction:
Seeing cross-team conflict as a system issue, not a people issue, opens the door to constructive resolution. As W. Edwards Deming wisely said, “A bad system will beat a good person every time.”
Confusion is expensive. Sometimes the real issue isn’t between the teams at all, it’s between their leaders. Unaligned leaders create downstream team conflict. Before you bring teams together, ensure leaders are aligned on:
Uniting leadership and teams around shared outcomes that ladder to business goals is the key to unlock the tension and reduce the overhead.
When emotions run high, structure brings calm. Set a container that includes:
This isn’t bureaucracy, it’s psychological safety. As Edmondson says, “Fear shuts people down. Safety lets them lean in.”
A safe space reduces defensive behaviour and improves the quality of team conflict resolution.
In moments of team conflict, people often slip into blame or problem-orientation. Clarity comes when you shift the conversation from what’s wrong to what’s possible. Break the pattern by asking:
This simple reframing helps both teams reconnect with the bigger picture. It shifts them from defending their position to exploring shared outcomes.
To discus and resolve team conflict effectively it's important to remove judgement. Strip away assumptions. Keep emotion out of the centre. Focus the conversation on work, tasks, goals, and constraints—not personalities. This keeps the conversation productive rather than emotional.
Trying to win across-team conflict is the fastest route to losing. Losing trust, time, cohesion. Instead, focus on co-creating the way forward.
When teams believe they’re right, they stop listening. Curiosity reopens the conversation.
Aim for collaboration, not compromise.
Time rarely heals cross-team conflict. More often, it hardens it.
Address issues early, when they are still signals rather than symptoms.
Handled intentionally, cross-team conflict becomes an opportunity:
Leaders are there to help teams navigate conflictwith steadiness, understanding, and mutual respect.
You can try fix a team. Or you can connect leadership, delivery, and people so teams moves in flow with the rest of the business.
