Team Tension: The Silent Killer of Creativity (And 4 Things You Can Do About It)

Summary

In this article, you will learn:

• How team tension is like a virus

• How it destroys creativity and collaboration

• 4 things you can do to prevent and address it

I came for the Jiu-jitsu but stayed for the leadership lessons.

Last week, Lex Fridman published his second conversation with Mark Zuckerberg. I love it when two AI bots talk to each other, so I jumped right in.

(Jokes. I’m a fan of both of them.)

It began with a chat about competitive jiu-jitsu.

Lex was true to himself and quickly steered the conversation to the martial art’s beauty. They bonded over jiu-jitsu’s stoic virtues and how it is the perfect setting to become comfortable with fear, failure, and embarrassment.

Lex then asked Mark how he deals with fear and anxiety in stressful situations outside jiu-jitsu, such as work.

And what Mark said next caught my attention.

He wasn’t struggling with strategies for his multi-billion dollar businesses, the recent criticism of Meta’s colossal investments into the Metaverse, competition from the new Apple VR headset, the potentially existential threat of AI, or even testifying before Congress.

He talked about people:

Tension in teams is like a virus.

We’ve all experienced it. I know I have. I’ve even been responsible for it—these moments sting. You can probably remember yours, as I do mine. They tend to stay with you far more than the joyous moments of seamless cooperation. (This is negativity bias in action.)

They often start as breakdowns in communication, stylistic conflicts, or significant differences of opinion. When tension takes hold, it’s painful.

Tension has terrible effects:

• It spreads quickly and easily, infecting everyone in its path.

• It causes discomfort in sharing information, and people become competitive, isolated, and shrink inward.

• It stops people from contributing ideas, and they withhold POVs as passive-aggressive behavior.

• It makes people less willing to listen to each other, poisoning progress and the hope of developing insights or ideas.

• It even impacts those not directly involved in conflict by making things awkward and uncomfortable, filtering the joy out of work.

Worse, I have seen it put teams into a form of productivity debt that robs them of future results.

In other words, it can last a while and is like a hole that’s hard to climb.

These hostile work environments are draining. They can lead to decreased morale and job satisfaction, reduced engagement, and increased turnover.

In short, team tension is the worst.

Team tension destroys creativity.

I’ve always liked how Simon Sinek emphasizes the importance of “creating an environment in which people can perform at their best.” He stresses that trust is the crucial element that makes all the difference. 

Trust is crucial for effective teamwork.

Without it, people hesitate to rely on one another, delegate, or provide support. A lack of trust can be a major setback, making it challenging to build a cohesive and high-performing team.

When people are afraid to express their ideas or take risks due to fear of judgment or criticism, teams not only lose out on significant brainpower, but the stress creates a vicious cycle that spirals out of control and hinders productivity.

Creativity flourishes with positivity, trust, and openness. Three things that tension will quickly poison.

So what can you do about team tension?

Here are 4 tactics to fight team tension:
(Two preventative measures and two remedies.)

• Spend time with each other.

• Understand and appreciate differences.

• Address it early.

• Focus on shared goals.

Let’s dig in.

Preventative Tactic #1:
Spend time with each other.

This is straight out of Mark’s playbook.

In his chat with Lex, Mark talked about how he avoids or relieves tensions by spending a disproportionate amount of time with his core leadership team compared to some of his friends who also lead companies.

This resonated. I have been fortunate to have been part of leadership teams that also spent a lot of time together, and the benefits are clear.

Cohesion forms when there’s visibility, access, and an invitation to contribute to creative problem-solving. You’re united and bonded.

Team members who spend much time together can build trust, develop strong relationships, and foster camaraderie.

They learn each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and working styles. This allows them to communicate more effectively and exchange ideas more freely.

Over time, they develop a shared understanding and can communicate more efficiently, reducing misunderstandings and conflicts.

Additionally, spending time together helps teams develop a sense of synergy, where individual efforts and skills align for greater collective productivity.

When team members spend significant time together, they can better understand each other’s strengths, areas of expertise, and working preferences. This knowledge allows for more effective task delegation, collaboration, and leveraging each other’s strengths.

Preventative Tactic #2: 
Understand and appreciate differences.

This is about empathy.

As a leader or manager, you can encourage your team to appreciate and value others for their differences. (And not to resent them because of their differences.)

Their differences result in unique abilities to see and understand the world. Their differences enable special lenses to notice and interpret details, glean insights, and form intuitions.

There are many ways to help team members get to know each other, from sharing personal backgrounds to bringing inspiration and insights from past work lives to the group.

For over a decade, I leveraged the personality science of The Color Code to unpack individuals’ motivations and natural strengths. It gives people an awareness of themselves and an appreciation of others they would have otherwise missed.

For many people, the impact was profound. A colleague once told me, “It’s like seeing through The Matrix and noticing the real world.”

I also use the Basadur Profile, a proven assessment tool validated by research that provides insight into how people and teams prefer to think during the innovation process. Like The Color Code, this tool equips teams with a vocabulary of ways to classify others and unpack the nuances of what makes them unique.

Through empathy, I’ve watched countless people trade their resentment for acceptance and admiration.

These tools are invaluable in helping people understand themselves and others and bolster empathy and acceptance within teams.

In my career, I have assessed and interpreted over 750 profiles, and I can say without question that both my teams and clients benefited.

Remedy #1:
Address it early. 

This is the most straightforward and most obvious tip of them all. But it’s nonetheless essential to remember.

In my experience, I have found it’s crucial to address tensions as soon as possible. It’s not always an option to do at the moment they arise, but it usually is shortly after.

This can be done through open communication and conflict resolution. What you don’t want to do is let things linger and rot. It’ll just get worse and become harder to work through.

As a leader or manager, you can support the team and individuals by intervening early with compassion and good intention.

The sooner you encourage and enable cooperation, the sooner you can return to work and avoid a vicious cycle of negativity.

Remedy #2:
Focused on shared goals.

One of the most helpful things to do when resolving tensions is to remind those involved of their shared and individual goals and to start a dialogue about how they can support the team and each other in achieving them.

This helps refocus the discussion on what is essential and find solutions that benefit everyone involved.

Remind them not to make arguments or conflicts about people but about ideas. 

It’s not one versus another.
It’s them together versus a problem.

People tend to notice how they are after the same things and how they can help and rely on each other to achieve their goals. This way, tensions can be flipped into mutual support, growth, and development.

Activate a virtuous cycle.

It is unsurprising that Mark focuses so much on people. After all, he is the founder of the world’s most famous and largest social network.

While they didn’t speak about this topic for long, I think there’s a lot of insight into what he shared, and I hope you do too.

Fight team tension and avoid a vicious cycle of stress and crushed creativity. Instead, engage in a virtuous cycle: doing great work feels good, and feeling good can help you do great work.

And that’s where the magic happens.

This Newsletter

Please subscribe if you’d like more insights and ideas about leadership, culture, productivity, creativity, innovation, teams, and collaboration.

My Course on Maven

I teach a live online course called The Strategic Creativity System™.

It’s a proven way to think big, lead happier teams, and get things done.

In it, I share insights, skills, and frameworks to unleash your team’s potential.

Check out the official course page.

My Services

I work with leaders and teams to:

• Maximize their impact through strategic, creative problem-solving and effective collaboration.

• Transform corporate innovation into a better, more reliable source of growth.

• Accelerate innovation agendas through player-coach support and guidance.

Visit my website to learn more about how I can help your organization.