Webinar: How to Harness conflict in the boardroom

Fantastic.

Thank you.

It's an interesting topic.

And when I first started talking to people about, you know, we're talking about conflict in the boardroom and how do we optimise conflict to achieve outcomes, some of the feedback I got was, should we really be calling this conflict? Should we just be focusing on robust debate and discussion? And why is it actually really important? And I think part of this conversation is that we all know in theory that conflict is essential in the boardroom.

We know that many governance and strategic risks are caused when we don't have healthy debate and challenge in the boardroom.

and that the outcomes can be limited.

But I think there's a real difference between the theory of what we know and how we actually achieve that in reality, which is I think why when we look at Anna and Fiona and myself, why we all have roles to play in supporting organisations in actually understanding how to harness healthy conflict and how to create healthy conflict and what to do when it becomes quite negative and destructive.

So I'll just throw it to you both, Fiona and Anna.

For you, what does healthy conflict look like in the boardroom? What is it, the type of things that you think should be demonstrated? Fiona?

I've seen a lot of boards that think that they're really aligned, but actually they make really quick decisions, but it turns out that they're not aligned at all.

There's this sort of fake harmony lying underneath.

And I think healthy conflict is when the conflict is actually about the content or the deeper thinking that's needed.

unhealthy conflict is when it's about the individual so i think that's an important distinction um i really like this list that you've got georgia on the slide i would also add that um healthy conflict is needed in the boardroom for innovation i read this really interesting article about when the apollo the nasa was doing the apollo man on the moon um the what do we ever call that? And the engineers were encouraged to fight with each other, but in a really positive way.

And it was all about the mission.

And they would point to the moon and say, Do we want to go here? And so they had this really healthy dissent and debate because they were so focused on the mission.

And I think that's a really great metaphor for boards.

Yeah, and I think it's when the dysfunction can disconnect can come when you're not continuing to keep focused on the purpose of the organisation, the mission and the vision of where you're wanting to get to.

And Anna, what does healthy conflict look like for you in the boardroom and what have you observed?

Yeah, I would absolutely affirm what is being drawn into here, because I think it's a really important point.

Foundationally, organisations are there to serve a purpose.

And so seeing that conflict, that diversity of perspective is actually in service of the organisation and pulling that perspective away from...

I'm not here to serve an agreement within the board.

I'm here to serve the broader organisation and the purpose that we are gathered here to do.

And so I think that that's a really important foundation.

I think that therefore having that perspective that different people, we talk about, you know, skills matrix.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

It's an interesting topic.

And when I first started talking to people about, you know, we're talking about conflict in the boardroom and how do we optimise conflict to achieve outcomes, some of the feedback I got was, should we really be calling this conflict? Should we just be focusing on robust debate and discussion? And why is it actually really important? And I think part of this conversation is that we all know in theory that conflict is essential in the boardroom.

We know that many governance and strategic risks are caused when we don't have healthy debate and challenge in the boardroom.

and that the outcomes can be limited.

But I think there's a real difference between the theory of what we know and how we actually achieve that in reality, which is I think why when we look at Anna and Fiona and myself, why we all have roles to play in supporting organisations in actually understanding how to harness healthy conflict and how to create healthy conflict and what to do when it becomes quite negative and destructive.

So I'll just throw it to you both, Fiona and Anna.

For you, what does healthy conflict look like in the boardroom? What is it, the type of things that you think should be demonstrated? Fiona?

I've seen a lot of boards that think that they're really aligned, but actually they make really quick decisions, but it turns out that they're not aligned at all.

There's this sort of fake harmony lying underneath.

And I think healthy conflict is when the conflict is actually about the content or the deeper thinking that's needed.

unhealthy conflict is when it's about the individual so i think that's an important distinction um i really like this list that you've got georgia on the slide i would also add that um healthy conflict is needed in the boardroom for innovation i read this really interesting article about when the apollo the nasa was doing the apollo man on the moon um the what do we ever call that? And the engineers were encouraged to fight with each other, but in a really positive way.

And it was all about the mission.

And they would point to the moon and say, Do we want to go here? And so they had this really healthy dissent and debate because they were so focused on the mission.

And I think that's a really great metaphor for boards.

Yeah, and I think it's when the dysfunction can disconnect can come when you're not continuing to keep focused on the purpose of the organisation, the mission and the vision of where you're wanting to get to.

And Anna, what does healthy conflict look like for you in the boardroom and what have you observed?

Yeah, I would absolutely affirm what is being drawn into here, because I think it's a really important point.

Foundationally, organisations are there to serve a purpose.

And so seeing that conflict, that diversity of perspective is actually in service of the organisation and pulling that perspective away from...

I'm not here to serve an agreement within the board.

I'm here to serve the broader organisation and the purpose that we are gathered here to do.

And so I think that that's a really important foundation.

I think that therefore having that perspective that different people, we talk about, you know, skills matrix.