Harvard Business Review on Collaborating Effectively

Want Collaboration?

Accept—and Actively Manage—Conflict

by Jeff Weiss and Jonathan Hughes

THE CHALLENGE IS A LONG-STANDING one for senior managers: How do you get people in your organization to work together across internal boundaries? But the question has taken on urgency in today’s global and fast-changing business environment. To service multinational accounts, you increasingly need seamless collaboration across geographic boundaries. To improve customer satisfaction, you increasingly need collaboration among functions ranging from R&D to distribution. To offer solutions tailored to customers’ needs, you increasingly need collaboration between product and service groups.

Meanwhile, as competitive pressures continually force companies to find ...