The Situation
The CEO confided in Alan that she was extremely frustrated. Her leadership team was constantly bickering, engaged in what she called destructive conflict.
She asked Alan for help.
What Alan Did
Alan interviewed all the leadership team members. He discovered that when asked about the past events that formed the organization, it was about times of great stress for the organization, where the very survival of the company was in question. There was always bickering, however in those moments, the arguments were constructive. They were about how to solve the impossible problems.
Alan showed the CEO and the leadership team that the root cause problem was not the arguments. The problem was that now that the organization was highly successful, they had lost the mutual driving goal of survival.
Alan worked with the CEO and the leadership team to develop new big scary goals. He then helped the team to develop a strategy.
The Results
There were still lots of arguments between very strong leaders. Now, however the arguments were constructive, in buliding both strategy and trust. The team was now using the heat from their arguments to accelerate towards their next major success.