In long-term groups and teams, members need to develop ways to handle such disagreements and learn to work together effectively. Schwarz (1994) used the term developmental to describe groups in which improvement of group process, including the ability to handle conflicts of all kinds, is one of the goals. Not all groups have that luxury of time, however. In short-term groups, time taken to allow members to engage in personal disagreements might mean that the group does not complete its task. Such discussions, in
most situations, should be handled offline (Kolb and Rothwell, 1999, 2000). First, however,