The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Organization Back on Track

by Liane Davey

More productivity. Less drama. It all starts with a healthy conflict culture.

In the modern workplace, conflict has become a dirty word. After all, conflict is antithetical to teamwork, employee engagement, and a positive company culture. Or is it?

The truth is that our teams and organizations require conflict to get things done. But we avoid conflict and build up conflict debt by deferring and dodging the difficult decisions. Our organizations are paying the price―becoming less productive, less innovative, and less competitive. Individuals are paying, too―suffering from overwhelming workloads, endless drama, and sleepless nights.

In The Good Fight , Liane Davey shows you how to create the productive conflict your organization needs to get along and get stuff done. Drawing on her twenty-year career as an advisor to the C-Suite, Davey shares real-world examples and practical tools you and your team can use to handle even the most contentious conflicts as allies―instead of adversaries. Filled with strategies you will use again and again, The Good Fight is an essential field guide for leaders at all levels.

Genres: Leadership, Nonfiction, Business, Management, Business Leadership

240 pages, Hardcover

Published March 26, 2019

About the author

Liane Davey is a New York Times Bestselling author of three books, including The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Your Organization Back on Track and You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done.

Known as the Water Cooler Psychologist, she is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review and frequently called on by media outlets for her experience in leadership, team effectiveness, and productivity.

As the co-founder of 3COze Inc., she advises companies such as Amazon, TD Bank, UNICEF, 3M, and SONY.
Liane has a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology.

Reviews

[Amy Rhoda Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I gave this book my usual "I know the author" bonus star that would push it to five stars (which I try to save for books that turned my life upside down). So consider this a strong 4.5.

This book makes a compelling case for conflict (which includes actually discussing the merits of decisions and stress-testing ideas) and lays out plenty of tools and structures for how to do conflict at work. The writing is conversational and informal, so the lessons go down easy.

A bonus chapter extends the learning to the home and volunteer work. (Oh my goooooood volunteer work, right?)

This book is well worth reading if you work, or live, with other humans.

[Morag Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great new book by Liane Davey. Interestingly she suggests we all need MORE conflict, thankfully she provides the tools and resources to ensure that this is healthy tension that ensures greater success for everyone.
Great resource, recommended it to everyone.

[Larry Kunz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Good Fight is one of the best business books I've read in the last few years: well written, well reasoned, and full of insights gained from Liane Davey's work with corporate leaders.

Davey explains, in very relatable fashion, that most of us are conditioned to avoid conflict rather than confronting it -- especially in our professional lives. The result is "conflict debt," where issues remain tamped down until they burst forth, damaging organizations and the people in them.

Each chapter covers a series of sensible, realistic techniques for dealing with tamped-down issues and for preventing conflict debt altogether. The entire book is on point, highly readable, and practical in its usefulness.

[Elizabeth McCourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Getting better with conflict is essential to be a good leader. There are stories, strategies and a roadmap to help you get better at it. I especially enjoyed the personal final chapter.

[Josh Rensch · Rating 4 out of 5]

In full disclosure, I know the author. I work as an engineer for my day job. As an engineer, I’ve experienced ill-handled conflict and none existent conflict for years. How it’s damaged projects and organizations. I didn’t have a term for it till I read this book. Conflict Debt.

I think if the only thing you get from this book is that term and how it affects things, you will be better for it. There is more to this book than that but that was a game changer for me. Once I saw things through that lens I saw why things were the way they were.

I’d suggest this book to anyone who has to navigate corporate waters.

[Susan Barber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me look at the importance of communication between people in a new way. Healthy conflict is what is important to achieve goals. Liane Davey has a gift for taking complex topics and simplifying them through the use of metaphors. It helps to understand them and apply these concepts in a better way. She has created two great exercises in the book that teams in companies can use to create clarity in roles, their responsibilities and to help them work together in a more productive way. The author has a great way of sharing feedback to help leaders hear what they need to do to improve and be the leader that their teams need for success. Highly recommend!

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is filled with great information. If you’re a regular reader of leadership books, the bulk of this you have seen before. You are giving some very good ways to neutralize aggressive and highly emotional opinions in order to productively discuss and issue you might be trying to solve. The author uses the word conflict in a way that almost redefines it. It morphs to mean an open discussion of different ideas. Above all, this book is about methods to ‘Force’ open, effective discussion.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked that the author advocates that conflict is a natural thing that we need to work thru. We shouldn’t ignore conflict as it just will build up. Also gives tools on how to resolve conflict effectively. And in terms of family explains how we need to allow children to learn to work thru their conflict and not protect them so much, to help them be more resilient.
Good read.

[Venita · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read and full of good advice about how to navigate organization politics. Great insights into how neuroscience impacts how we view and react to difficult conversations and conflict. Every leader including those who lead teams, committees and projects either formally or informally should keep this sound advice on hand.

[Nicolás Herrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how the author revamps the conception of conflict towards a productive approach within this book and provides tools and examples to embrace conflict and make it productive. Conflict is necessary and represents an opportunity to transition to a productive and problem solving mindset. Avoiding conflicts will only increase our ‘conflict debt’.

[Murphy Daley · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really liked this book! Lots of good perspective and toola

[Christian d'Aragon]

I gave it to my best friend who is a manager.

[Darren Sapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few like conflict but many times we should (and must) embrace it. Davey has provided the roadmap.

[Isabelle Duchaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended by a mentor and supervisor! Great strategies although harder to action from the bottom of the pyramid, but lots of good soft power potential.

[Jacob Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, very relatable and great perspective of how conflict can affect us at work. Would recommend to all my colleagues!!