Two friends start a company in a college dorm room – and end up facing each other across a table full of lawyers. “The Social Network” shows the Team Principle of Conflict through its failure: conflict over substance can move a team forward; conflict over the person always harms it. In the film, the product wins and the team falls apart.
Two groups meet in the middle, and the friction over substance produces a golden shape. When the arrows aim at people, cracks appear and the groups drift apart.
Team principle #14
Team Principle of Conflict: Conflict over substance can move a team forward; conflict over the person always harms it.
5 min read5 sectionsSituationConnection to the principle
Contents
A conference room, a long table, lawyers on both sides. Between them, two young men who were once best friends. Director David Fincher uses this image to frame his film “The Social Network,” which was released in US theaters on October 1, 2010. Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay based on Ben Mezrich’s book “The Accidental Billionaires.” Told in flashbacks, the film shows how an idea becomes a global company and a founding team turns into opposing parties in a lawsuit. It is a counterexample to the Team Principle of Conflict: conflict over substance can move a team forward; conflict over the person always harms it. One important note up front: the film is heavily fictionalized. Everything that follows describes characters in the film, not the real people.
A network of dots grows above a gold node, and the line between the two founding dots has snapped – as in “The Social Network.”
01
One Night, One Idea, Two Claims
Situation
Harvard, 2003. After a breakup, student Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) codes “Facemash,” a site for rating photos of female students, in a single night. It brings down part of the university network and earns him academic probation. The twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer) and their partner Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) take notice. They recruit him for their project, “Harvard Connection.” Instead, the film’s Zuckerberg pitches an idea of his own to his friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield).
Connection to the team principle
Here lies the film’s first question of substance: Who owns an idea? That could be talked through. In the film, no one talks it through. One side feels strung along; the other keeps working. A question of substance that no one raises does not go away. It comes back as resentment – and, in the film, as a lawsuit.
02
A Thousand Dollars and a Title
Situation
Saverin puts up $1,000 in seed money and becomes CFO of “TheFacebook.” The site spreads, first at Harvard, then to Yale, Columbia and Stanford. The two friends have different ideas about how the company should grow and make money.
Connection to the team principle
Two founders, two perspectives: one thinks in terms of the product, the other in terms of the finances. That is a good starting point for productive conflict over substance. Research, however, names one condition for it: trust. As long as trust is there, an objection remains an objection. The film shows how this trust is used up bit by bit, without the two ever clarifying who decides what.
03
A Third Man Enters
Situation
Napster co-founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) appears and sketches out a far bigger future for the company. The film’s Zuckerberg is impressed. Saverin distrusts Parker. The friends argue more and more about the company’s direction. The company moves to Palo Alto, and investor Peter Thiel puts in $500,000. Saverin stays on the East Coast.
Connection to the team principle
This is where the argument turns. It is no longer about which strategy is better. It is about whose advice his friend listens to. “I think the plan is wrong” becomes “I don’t trust this man” – and that becomes “You’re not on my side anymore.” Then there is the physical distance. People who no longer sit in the same room stop arguing with each other and start arguing about each other.
04
The Dilution
Situation
Saverin flies in for what he believes is a celebration. There he learns that his stake has been diluted from 34% to 0.03% – unlike those of the other shareholders. He loses his position. The film is framed by two depositions: Saverin and the Winklevoss brothers sue Zuckerberg in separate cases. Both suits end in settlements.
Connection to the team principle
A dispute over substance ends with a decision that everyone knows about. In the film, this dispute ends with someone being pushed out – and he is the last to find out. That is the hallmark of conflict over the person: at the end there is no solution, just one opponent fewer. The price is high, even for the winner. The company keeps growing, but the founders now talk only through lawyers.
05
The Product Wins, the Team Loses
Situation
The film cost $40 million and grossed about $225 million worldwide. It was nominated for eight Oscars and won three: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and Best Film Editing.
Connection to the team principle
One might object that the company in the film becomes a global success, so the conflict did no harm. But the principle is about the team, not the product. A team is more than its output. The film leaves open what would have become of the company if the two friends had fought out their questions of substance early and openly. It only shows what it costs when they don’t.
Key takeaways
Key Lessons
01
Settle questions of substance while they are still small: Who owns what, who decides what, who gets what? Put it in writing.
02
Raise your distrust of a third party directly – and base it on observations, not on feelings about the person.
03
Stay in the same room. If you and your team work in different places, you need set times for working through contentious issues.
04
Never make a decision about someone without their knowledge. Whoever is the last to learn what was decided becomes an opponent.
05
Don’t measure your team’s success by the product alone. Also ask who is still talking to whom at the end.
Summary
“The Social Network” tells the story of founders who have plenty of material for good conflict over substance: ownership of ideas, strategy, money. In the film, these questions are never fought out. They turn into resentment, distrust and exclusion, and in the end the lawyers do the talking. The Team Principle of Conflict describes both sides: conflict over substance can move a team forward – if you actually have it out. Conflict over the person always harms it, even when the product wins.
