Reframe conflict as collaboration

- Remember that conflict on a team is a form of collaboration. When disagreements happen on a team, people can get very territorial over their ideas, including you, and that's a problem because if defending your ideas involves tearing down the ideas of someone else, respect between colleagues is going to go out the window. When someone speaks up to disagree with the consensus in the room, they're doing it out of a place of trust, not toxicity, except the 4% or so of the population that are sociopaths, but we're assuming they're not on your team. Conflict when handled productively, strengthens a team and makes it more likely they're going to uncover innovative ideas, but only if people don't take that conflict personally. So don't take it personally yourself and make sure you're there to referee differences of opinion so that people don't get into criticizing the ideas of others around the table. Disagreement is a stepping stone, not an obstacle, but only if we agree to continue going down the path.