Tension in "Team"

  The more that I venture on testing systems at work, the more I can appreciate that teamwork is always going to have some kind of tension. That sort of tension doesn't necessarily need to be bad, and there is in fact such a thing as "creative tension", where there ideas evolve due to the differences in people's personalities. The way that a person interprets and understands "difference" can make a big difference (pardon the pun) in how tensions are negotiated. If I see tensions as signs of danger, then I will constantly seek refuge from them, clinging to a false sense of comfort. If, on the other hand, tension is seen as a natural aspect of teamwork, then there is no contradiction between teamwork and tension. The two do go together in a sense, not necessarily in a bad sense.
   Another way of looking at it is not to frame tension as something that needs to "snap". Sometimes the metaphor of elasticity is evoked here, to suggest that the only way to resolve tension is by literally "snapping": angrily withdrawing or trying to pull inward, just as an elastic would after it has been snapped violently. But what if tension could be enjoyed in that moment and seen not as duality but as a single moment? I notice in myself that when this happens, I can better observe that the tension fluctuates and often dissolves on its own without anyone forcing it to do so. There is never any time when a person holds tension forever, since tension is always a more or less equal and contradictory balance of forces. More often than not, such a balance changes or shifts toward something else in time, as the two sides are joined or resolved in some ways. But if I am too attached to my one way of being then I am more likely to view differences as threatening, and it's important that I am aware of that tendency without necessarily swinging toward the opposite direction of merely "complying" with everything around me. This balance requires not only an awareness of the other team members' ideas and contributions but also my own energies and ability to sustain ideas or work them into my present situation.