7 Ways to Turn Team Conflict Into Healthy Discussion

The best startup teams don’t shy away from some healthy friction and heated debates between team members or founders. That’s the way smart people with innovative insights make real change happen. Yet we all know that there is a fine line here, beyond which heated debates generate so much emotion and drama that the entire team becomes dysfunctional.

The obvious challenge is to channel these interactions in a way that maximizes their value to the startup as positive results, without letting them slip into a non-productive or even toxic mode. An equally important challenge is to maintain a culture that rewards engagement, since many people are uncomfortable challenging the views of others.

For feedback of any type to be effective, there can be no quick judgment of right or wrong. Yet it certainly is possible for team members to not deliver feedback well, or for the receiver to accept it poorly or even ignore it. Either of these problems turns conflict into unhealthy friction, which can be avoided with the following initiatives:

8 Lessons Improv Comedy Class Taught Me About Entrepreneurship

Picture yourself in a group setting, maybe at a party or business function. You chime-in to the conversation with a line so funny, so perfect, so well-timed that the group erupts with laughter; maybe someone even slaps your arm in approval or sheds a tear laughing (when you’re really lucky). And you stand there and soak in your verbal victory. Then you replay it in your head a few times before you go to bed, and relish your moment of brilliant comedy.

I love those moments. So much so that I decided to become skilled at them: I signed up for improv comedy classes.

But what I got out of these classes was much more than a couple of one-liners for parties. Improv turned out to be great for my company and personal well-being. Here are those eight business lessons improv taught me:

How to Find Your Next Big Business Idea

You have been thinking about this for a long time, and now you are ready to get serious about starting your own business. Many people know they want to strike out on their own before they have a solid idea. There are so many different directions you could go, so many ideas out there. How do you know what is the right one for you?

Sure, some entrepreneurs have inspired “eureka!” moments that give them that big idea, but even more follow a method of generating successful ideas. Rather than waiting for the lightning bolt to strike, there are some tried and true strategies for arriving on your best bets for a business.

Here are some of the things you can do to help set yourself up for the win when planning your new venture: