Finding Common Ground With a Divided Team | Warren Whitney

Finding Common Ground: How Leaders Build Unity Without Forcing Agreement

By Tom Prest, Director, Warren Whitney

If you’re leading a team where people genuinely see things differently, politically, socially, or just about how work should get done, and you’re not sure how to hold the group together without pretending the differences don’t exist, you’re in the right place.

The Problem: Unity Isn’t the Same as Agreement

Many leaders assume that a divided team needs to reach agreement before it can function well again. That’s the wrong target, and chasing it usually backfires. The goal isn’t to erase differences between people. It’s to build enough shared foundation that people can still work well together despite their differences.

The short answer: common ground comes from naming the values most people already share – respect, quality, service, integrity, impact, and repeatedly returning to the outcomes everyone cares about, rather than litigating the disagreement itself. Common ground doesn’t mean conflict disappears. It means disagreement doesn’t get to define the entire relationship.

Why Tom Prest

Tom Prest is a Director at Warren Whitney and a trusted advisor to nonprofit and private-sector leaders navigating growth, change, and complex people challenges. With more than 30 years in human resources, administration, and organizational leadership, including executive leadership and coaching, board and committee leadership, and change management, Tom’s practice centers on helping organizations build strong teams and translate strategy into practical results, which is exactly the skill set this kind of unity-without-agreement work requires.

What This Article Covers

• Why chasing agreement is the wrong goal
• Three practical moves for building common ground
• How this connects to vision and the team’s larger purpose
• A next step if your team is stuck in disagreement right now

Three Moves That Build Common Ground

1. Name the values most people already share. Most teams, even divided ones, still agree on respect, quality, service, integrity, and impact. Start there, not with the point of disagreement.
2. Keep returning to shared outcomes. Redirect conversations back to the results everyone is actually working toward.
3. Trade “you’re wrong” for curiosity. A simple shift, “tell me more about how you see this,” instead of debating who’s right, keeps the relationship intact even when the disagreement isn’t resolved.

Connecting This to Vision

Common ground holds better when it’s tied to something bigger than the disagreement itself. That means reconnecting the team to its mission and who it serves, and helping people see how their specific role contributes to that larger purpose, not as motivational hype, but as a grounded, honest reminder that the work is worth doing, even in a hard season.

Next Steps

If you want help translating your organization’s existing mission and policies into the kind of day-to-day clarity your team needs right now, Tom Prest works directly with leadership teams on exactly this. Please feel free to contact us or view Tom’s full bio for more on his background in leadership development and organizational change.