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BGI featured in Harvard Business Review article "Tension in Teams"

BayGroup International's Paul Hennessey was featured in "Tension in Teams," which appeared in the "Best Practices" blog of the Harvard Business Review January 14, 2009.

Excerpt from the article:

When is it destructive? When is it creative? Conflict within teams is inevitable. And that's a good thing, because it's also essential to the creative collaboration that is a team's raison d'être. Without differences of opinion, there can be no debate about important issues nor synthesis of ideas. "As William Wrigley Jr. used to say, 'If two people in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary,'" says Paul Hennessey, executive vice president of marketing, research, and development at BayGroup International, a consulting and training firm in Larkspur, California....

"Stay with the tension," says Hennessey. "In our work, the best teams and their leaders are able to 'hang in there' with the tension and keep exploring creative options. It's much more likely that innovative solutions will emerge....

Too often, people assume they understand the other person's position. Don't go on assumptions, but rather paraphrase what each person is saying. That simple exercise can clear up misconceptions and make conversation partners more open to the other side of the story, says Hennessey.

Find the full article here: http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2009/01/tension-in-teams.html

Article excerpt Copyright © 2010 Harvard Business School Publishing