2 Types of Conflict

An Australian organisational psychologist called Karen Etty Jehn (“Etty”), explains there are two types of conflict, relationship or task.

Relationship conflict is personal and emotional and filled with friction and animosity. It may start with a difference of opinion but very quickly it will become a personal attack, which will be damaging long term.

Task conflict can be as simple as which restaurant to eat in that evening or the colour of a font on a document. This is normally based on ideas and opinions.

Etty studied teams in silicone valley and found that teams performed badly if they started with relationship conflict rather than task conflict. They entered into personal feuds, and the relationships were so broken that they did not offer new ideas or opinions.

Teams that were high performing started with low relationship conflict, and kept it low throughout their time of working together. In their teams task conflict was high and they were able to see things from many different perspectives.

We often believe the absence of conflict is harmony although without any difference of opinion there is no creativity and can just be a very stagnant environment.

We want teams have the courage to fight for their ideas and the resilience to stand down if another idea is better, and not lose resolve to fight the next time. The key is a solid foundation of trust, where it is acceptable to point out blind spots to help overcome weaknesses.

Language is key to setting up a challenging network. Encourage team members to debate ideas, intellectual not emotional. Tone to be vigorous and feisty not aggressive. People disagree because they care not for the sake of disagreeing.

“It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable” – Adam Grant

In his book Rethinking – Adam Grant says you have to be careful that task conflict does not overspill into relationship conflict. Set up boundaries and ensure you frame the dispute, remember it is a debate not a disagreement. Distance from the position not emotionally attached to an idea.



A recent novel I was reading the evidence was so conclusive to the prime suspect the Detective in charge asked the whole team to prove the suspect innocent. As the story unfolded the suspect had been framed. We often need to rethink or look at our thoughts and ideas to determine is this emotional and relationship conflict or can I make it task conflict.