An illustration of a dysfunction: fear of conflict

Some people suggest to describe and learn testing field controversy but other discourage it. Controversy means conflicts, doesn’t it? Paul seems to suggest to get away from the conflict. Patrick Lencioni discuss fear of a conflict as a dysfunction in one of my favourite books.

This failure to build trust is damaging because it sets the tone for the second dysfunction: fear of conflict. Teams that lack trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered and passionate debate of ideas. Instead they resort to veiled discussions and guarded comments

It appears the same applies not only to internal teams but more generic to industry discussion.

Denial is the simples but most natural reaction to controversy. I know I have yet to learn to avoid it more, but I’m on my way there. For example I remember my denial to SCRUM, probably because of fear that my huge process experience will no longer be applicable. I don’t deny SCRUM any more and I’m committed to improve our SCRUM practices despite I disagree with the need of switching to it.