 Team Conflict Strategies Inventory
Don''t let unresolved issues drain the productivity from your teams! The TCSI provides an ideal opportunity for teams to work through issues and learn how to handle future conflicts more productively.
Teams have preferred ways of handling conflict. Some teams avoid conflict at all costs, while others find that the battle gives them energy and motivation. Start your teams on a discussion of how they choose to handle conflict - and what impact their behavior is having on the success of their team - with the Team Conflict Strategies Inventory (TCSI).
The TCSI presents teams with 5 typical conflict scenarios. Administered in two phases, team members are first asked to predict individually how their team would handle each situation by ranking strategy alternatives. Then, the team as a whole comes together to try to reach consensus on the items. This approach allows individual team members to share their perceptions and come to conclusions about common strategies employed by the team.
Overview
The learning goal for those completing the Team Conflict Strategies Inventory is to develop productive norms within their work groups for managing disagreements and to develop some procedures for dealing with more serious conflicts. The Team Conflict Strategies Inventory provides an ideal opportunity to work through any old, unresolved issues that may be draining energy from a team''s efforts.
People cannot work together for very long without disagreements on goals, priorities, and alternative solutions to problems. This is especially true in teams where team members are dependent on one another to complete their work. Sometimes team disagreements can become serious conflicts, threatening the productivity or even the life of the group. But if a team can use effective strategies for handling conflict, it may actually afford new learning and eventually deeper, more productive relationships.
Whether conflict is positive or negative is dependent on how the team generally handles its conflicts. Teams develop characteristic ways of managing conflict, which we refer to as their conflict strategies. Each team tends to have one or two conflict strategies with which they are most comfortable.
Teams will:
- Identify their preferred strategy for handling conflict. (View sample question)
- Gain an understanding of 5 different conflict strategies.
- Learn the appropriate use of each strategy.
- Develop procedures for managing disagreements.
The Participant Booklet includes pressure-sensitive scoring, descriptions of the five team conflict strategies, interpretation, and action planning. In addition to administrative guidelines and theoretical background, the detailed Facilitator Guide features a sample training design and a training activity with reproducible participant handouts.
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