Summary

This chapter scratched the surface of dealing with conflict, recognizing that it is good to have as long as it’s constructive. Projects I’ve worked on that had conflicts coming from vendors who were competitors tended to actually have a higher velocity of code and innovation than those that didn't. The same is true for projects with more diversity from different backgrounds, nationalities, races, genders, sexual orientations, and so on. That seems a bit counterintuitive at first, but if you think about it, having people in the room who all have the same experiences produces relatively predictable results. But when there are differences, we see a variety of perspectives and needs flourish, and that diversity brings new ideas and novel solutions. But when the conflict turns toxic, it becomes a distraction to a project and takes a lot of work and time to fix.

Handling conflict well is a centerpiece to being able to grow and scale as a project. Let’...