Our head of operations and head of product are constantly fighting over project delivery dates, and their departments have started hiding information from each other. How do we fix this peer conflict?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This conflict is a classic symptom of poor communication and a lack of trust at the leadership table. When departments start hiding information, they are practicing status management to protect themselves from blame. This behavior destroys team safety and slows down your entire company.

To resolve this, you must bring both leaders together to identify the root cause of the friction using the IDS® process. Start by looking at the Accountability Chart. Nine times out of ten, peer conflict over delivery dates stems from poorly defined seats or overlapping responsibilities. You must clarify exactly where the product team's responsibility ends and where the operations team's work begins.

Once the roles are clear, establish a shared scorecard metric that both leaders are responsible for achieving. This forces them to cooperate rather than compete. Finally, encourage them to share their personal working styles and conative profiles, such as their Kolbe A™ Index results. When they understand each other's natural instincts, they stop viewing process differences as personal attacks. If they continue to run secret operations and build silos after this alignment, you have a core values issue that requires a deeper conversation.