T2: Conflict & Role Clarity

Situation

Teams become trapped in exhausting cycles of interpersonal conflict and territorial disputes while critical work falls through organizational cracks. What should be collaborative problem-solving deteriorates into blame games and turf wars that paralyze decision-making.

Symptoms

Destructive Conflict Patterns:

• Territorial warfare: Team members protecting their perceived domains while refusing to take ownership of shared responsibilities
• Decision paralysis epidemics: Simple choices requiring weeks of discussion because accountability lines remain unclear
• Blame-shifting tournaments: Energy focused on fault-finding rather than solution-building when problems arise
• Communication breakdown cascades: Interpersonal tensions creating information silos that compound operational confusion
• Authority vacuum chaos: Multiple people believing they're responsible for the same decisions while other critical areas remain unowned

Productivity and Morale Destruction:

• Meetings becoming conflict battlegrounds rather than productive problem-solving sessions
• Project timelines constantly delayed by role confusion and interpersonal friction
• High-performing team members disengaging to avoid getting caught in ongoing conflicts
• Customer service suffering as internal disputes prevent coordinated responses
• Management time consumed by constant firefighting instead of strategic leadership

Challenge

Primary Goal: Eliminate destructive conflict patterns and establish crystal-clear role boundaries that enable seamless collaboration and decisive action.

Why it matters: Teams with clear roles and healthy conflict resolution are 3x more productive and show 50% lower stress-related turnover. Unresolved role ambiguity costs organizations an average of 20% productivity loss and creates toxic work environments that can destroy entire departments.

Key Questions to Answer:

• Which specific role overlaps and gaps are creating the most destructive conflicts?
• How do individual conflict styles and behavioral patterns escalate rather than resolve tensions?
• What personality combinations and working styles are inherently incompatible without clear structure?
• Which decision-making and accountability frameworks will prevent future territorial disputes?

Solution Approach

Deploy conflict and role optimization diagnostics that eliminate ambiguity and build constructive collaboration:

Phase 1: Conflict Style and Behavioral Assessment

• Individual conflict style and behavioral tendency profiling - Identify how different team members naturally approach disagreement and tension
• Personality risk and derailer analysis - Understand what triggers defensive or aggressive responses in each team member
• Interpersonal compatibility and friction mapping - Predict which personality combinations will create ongoing tension without intervention

Phase 2: Role Clarity and Accountability Structure

• 360-degree team feedback and role perception analysis - Compare how each person views their responsibilities versus others' expectations
• Decision-making authority and accountability mapping - Create clear frameworks for who owns what decisions and outcomes
• Collaboration style and team process optimization - Design working methods that leverage individual strengths while minimizing conflict triggers

Expected Outcomes

• Immediate (0-2 months): Clear role definitions and reduced blame-shifting behaviors
• Medium-term (2-4 months): Improved decision-making speed and constructive conflict resolution
• Long-term (4+ months): Sustainable collaborative culture with high productivity and reduced interpersonal stress

Available only in the PEATS Guide: in-depth comparisons of the most relevant online assessments for this case — including pricing, strengths and weaknesses, scientific quality, and detailed insights into the 9 closest-fit online assessments:

T2. Conflict & Role Clarity

• Talogy Factors → behavior in conflict.
• Talogy PAPI → team role fit.
• Hogan HDS → conflict derailers.
• Hogan HPI → personality in conflict.
• Harrison Smart Questionnaire → paradoxical conflict traits.
• Harrison QCT → reasoning under conflict.
• FIRO-B → interpersonal needs in conflict.
• XLNC Style → leadership style in conflict.
• XLNC Climate → team climate under role ambiguity.