Question

Think about an interteam challenge or conflict that you have either been part of or have observed in your organization. Describe what the issues were and discuss what steps you would take to reduce the chances of conflict escalation between the teams if you saw this occurring in the future.

Answer 1

I was a part of the sales team and we had to work with the technical delivery team when we sell the product to the customers. I had to gather the customer requirements and ask the delivery team to make the required changes to the product that meets those requirements. This is a very common practice but this led to a problem where the two teams got into an argument. The delivery team spoke and gave the information about the product and the pricing more than they are supposed to do. We got to know from the clients that this is happening and the clients had all the inside information about the company. So we complained to the top management and the delivery team had to apologize and had to make to sure that they do not do that anymore. This basically affected the negotiation ability of the sales team and the clients had the upper hand when we discussed pricing.

To avoid this in the future, I would give clear instructions to all the teams in the company on what they can speak and what they cannot when they are interacting with the customers. Maintaining the information related to the business of the company should be the top priority. I will also avoid the interaction of the technical team with the customers unless it is required for them to talk to them and get the answers to their questions. I will document all the rules to be followed and create a common repository giving access to all the employees. They will get to know what the company expects from them and to what extent they can share information with others.