Leadership Dots’ “Venn Diagram Week” came about because I was doing some purging and found my master’s thesis: Conflict and Its Resolution: A Study of Student Programming Organizations. The premise of this academic masterpiece is that people in student organizations experience conflict when one of three conditions is present: role conflict, interdependence, or scarce resources. If multiple conditions exist, greater conflict occurs.
This was written 40 years ago (gulp!) about student groups but the same theory remains applicable to all groups today. If there is confusion as to who is responsible for what, if there are overlapping responsibilities, or if resources (funds, time, space, tools) are scarce, there will be conflict. It’s a pretty straightforward premise that few would argue with, yet we have people in all types of organizations who have no job descriptions, received little onboarding, or know nothing of their resource parameters.
Let something valuable come from this study before the typewriter ink on the pages fades away. Commit to doing one thing to help your team gain some clarity in one of the three areas. Just knowing “what is” can go a long way toward preventing a time-wasting clash of expectations.
