“65% of startup teams fail due to founder conflict”
Harvard Professor, Noam Wasserman
THE FOUNDER’S DILEMMAS
WHAT IS CONFLICT?
Disagreeing, debating and negotiating are what make us human. How we disagrees will define us and our outcome. At Spatz, disagreeing is not conflict. Conflict comes from what we consider is misbehavior, during a disagreement. It’s our combined poor behavior that causes conflict, we believe.
“Conflict is an escalation of a disagreement, which is its common prerequisite, and is characterized by the existence of conflict behavior, in which the beings (team members) are actively trying to damage one another.”
[Prof Michael Nicholson – Wikipedia]
THE PROBLEM
When team members disagree, uncivil behavior from one can occur. With insufficient protections in place to address minor misconduct the other team member may try ignore it, prefering to vent/gossip later. Or he may react and micro-conflict results. Unresolved, these micro-conflicts can fester causing a loss of team collaboration, resulting in poor decision-making, and ultimately contribute to poorer team performance.
THE SOLUTION
At SpatzAI, we believe any poor behavior during a disagreement is unacceptable without being accountable. When misconduct or minor infractions occurs (and they will occur on occasion), anyone offended can pause the debate and object to the behavior in real-time, in order to get an acknowledgement to fix it.
“Build a culture of stopping to fix problems (including poor behavior), to get quality right the first time.“
The fifth principle of the Toyota Way
THE OBJECTION PROCEDURE
In real-time, we use a simple verbal caution to inform the person of the perceived infringement and our discomfort, requiring a simple acknowledgment to move on, or if unresolved i.e. contested or ignored, we inform the subject of the team member that we will use the SpatzAI App later to document and try resolve the spat.
“Psychological safety is an atmosphere where one can take chances……….without fear and with sufficient protection.”
[EDGAR SCHEIN & WARREN BENNIS 1965 – PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY – WIKIPEDIA]
SPATZAI THREE-STEP PROTECTION PROCEDURE APP
- Caution – using the SpatzAI App to send the caution, the grounds for it and the data collection begins. An acknowledgment is required for our spat and the deemed offender and if still unresolved (contested)…..
- Object – an official objection is sent and now our dispute requires a simple apology, and if still unresolved (contested)….
- Stop – is sent and the app automatically posts our conflict onto the SpatzAI & Founder Network to be reviewed. Now the conflict requires an acceptable apology for a resolution, and if still unresolved (contested)….
The conflict goes to a vote with a chance to hear both sides and the SpatzAI & Peer Review Network makes a recommendation on how to resolve the conflict.
DATA COLLECTION
The data collected from the SpatzAI App will allow teams to see their strengths and weaknesses and work on them. It will also enable the SpatzAI to machine learn, using the data to assist in resolving future conflict and help teams, organizations and investors to compare the team’s conflict behavior performance with their work performance.
SPATZAI VALUES – DECARRT
We use the following values to run SpatzAI and help keep us on track along with using the SpatzAI app. – yes we eat our own dogfood!
- Daring
- Enjoyable
- Considered
- Accountable
- Reasonable
- Responsible
- Transparent