In this chapter, I discussed the nature of conflict and the importance of climate and ground rules. I then described the types of conflict, both issue-based and personal, that might occur; approaches to handling issue-based conflict; and the negative groupthink aspect that might come from too much cohesion. I ended with some thoughts about how a facilitator chooses to handle conflict. Our next chapter focuses on creativity. I’ve seen “Avoid Groupthink” signs posted in creative offices, which shows how creativity and conflict both benefit from an exploration of all facets of an issue or problem.
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