Healthy Tension As Critical To Individual, Organizational Growth 

Over the course of five months, Council Fellows engage in nine experiential learning sessions on topics ranging from cost of care and health equity to innovation and market segments. The program culminates in a two-day, future-forward planning intensive where cohort members discern collective opportunities to achieve impact at scale. 

The Importance of Healthy Tension in Fostering Personal and Organizational Development

On day two, Council Fellows began the morning with a demonstration on healthy tension led by Anderson Williams, VP of Talent Development at Shore Capital Partners. Using rubber bands to illustrate the effects of tension, slack and “healthy” resistance in relationships, Williams guided fellows through a hands-on exercise to assess levels of tension within their work environments, highlighting healthy tension as the key to both organizational and individual growth. 

Asserting that creating, managing and sustaining healthy tension begins with understanding healthy relationships, Williams defined healthy relationships as comprising three distinct entities—I, we, you. 

“The ‘we’ space is that shared space we invest in based on the goals, or shared purpose, and value of the relationship, and this ‘shared goals’ space is where healthy tension resides in the workplace,” said Williams.  

In an experiential exercise where Fellows simulated a tense work environment using resistance bands, the group stretched their “bandmates” to the limit, creating literal white-knuckling situations emulating the tension often felt in high-stress professional settings. After the exercise, Fellows reflected that to create healthy tension, they had to loosen their grip, let others into their space, communicate, ask for help, and—perhaps most importantly—observe those around them. 

“When we’re not paying attention to the degree of tension in our relationships, there’s a good chance there’s somebody holding on for dear life on the other end,” said Williams. 

Emphasizing that tension is a natural—and beneficial—byproduct of shared goals, Williams encouraged Fellows to cultivate healthy tension in their teams through these five tenets:  

• Shared purpose, with company leadership consistently modeling, communicating and articulating the company’s WHY
• Ownership of the work, with everyone in the loop on strategic goals and how differing roles, responsibilities and skillsets contribute to the greater purpose
• Commitment to each other, with everyone understanding the importance of a team to deliver on the shared vision
• Teaching and learning, in which everyone is a teacher, and everyone is a learner
• Group and individual reflection, where leadership models and creates time to receive and give feedback openly, prompting a company-wide “what we learned” mentality 

About Council Fellows