Reframing Friction Into Feedback Culture
The Challenge
A global team, headquartered in Europe, was facing challenges around expressing disagreement and the management of competing priorities, despite sharing a common purpose and strong sense of commitment.
As happens in many organizations, conflict was not always visible and rarely expressed explicitely. This was linked not only to interpersonal dynamics, but also to how work was organized, how expectations were communicated and how decisions were made.
The intervention focused on three priorities:
Build greater trust and openness in team interactions.
Introduce practical tools to strengthen feedback and constructive conflict management.
Improve alignment around priorities, responsibilities and ways of working.
Our Approach
We developed an initial team diagnostic to encourage individual reflection ahead of the intervention and tailor the program to the team's specific needs.
The intervention addressed both the relational and operational dimensions of performance: how people communicated, how they handled disagreement, and how their ways of working supported - or hindered - collaboration.
Rather than avoiding difficult conversations, the team was encouraged to embrace them as opportunities for learning and improvement.
The Turning Point
Reframing friction into a source of useful information, encouraging courageous conversations to improve collective performance and reinforce sense of belonging.
The Impact
The work helped the team identify opportunities for clearer prioritization, more constructive feedback and stronger collaboration.
It also provided a foundation for more deliberate team practices, supporting the team's ability to respond to challenges and adapt over time.