What Causes Conflict in Teams?

• Introduce the exercise and explain the aim and objectives.
• Place both the Conflict and Scenario cards face down on a table and spread them out.
• Ask one person at a time to turn over one Conflict Card and one Scenario Card. The group should discuss whether they think the conflict was the cause of the issue in the scenario.
• If the group decide the conflict was the cause of the issue in the scenario, they should keep the two cards together and place them to one side.
• If they decide the conflict was not the cause of the issue in the scenario, they should turn over both of the cards so that they are face down again in their original position.
• Go round the group asking each person in turn to turn over both a Conflict Card and a Scenario Card with the aim of finding a matching pair.
• If a person finds a matching pair, they can have another go.
• If the group feel they have incorrectly paired up a conflict and a scenario, they should match up the right pair and place the odd cards face down on the table.

Review Activity and Apply Learning (5 minutes)

• Lay on the table the Conflict and Scenario cards in their pairs and hand out the answer sheets.
• If the group have got any wrong, or found any particularly difficult to pair up, discuss why this was. Is it possible that the issue was caused by more than one conflict?
• Ask the group if they can think of any more sources of conflict that might arise within teams. Ask them to note these at the bottom of their answer sheets.