Tension at the office can be a good thing when it’s constructive. This challenges workers, encourages healthy competition, and spurs creativity. The foundation of constructive tension involves a “same page trust” that includes six elements:
- The purpose of our collaboration
- The goals we share
- The roles and responsibilities we have
- The plans we are working toward
- How we provide feedback together on progress
- The team behaviors we want to see from each other.
While you are building this trust, it is important to provide workers with the psychological safety to disagree. This means respectfully challenging people with facts and data. While respectful debate should be encouraged, name-calling, insults, or emotional outbursts are unacceptable.
