Interpersonal tensions between colleagues can be costly for businesses. Even the spectre of a threat can sap concentration, undermine collaboration and divert huge amounts of mental energy away from work and towards self-defence.

Ecologists have observed how prey animals manage fear, threats and co-exist with predators within an ecosystem. This revealed surprising mechanisms that, in turn, shed light on how we react to team members in tense situations.

A surprising observation has emerged from the natural world: predators control prey populations not only by eating them, but also by instilling fear. This chronic fear forces prey to invest an immense amount of energy in vigilance and avoidance, leaving them with less energy for activities like finding food or reproducing.

In other words, it’s not predation itself that limits the growth of prey, but the constant anticipation of what might happen to them.

The three strategies of prey

A very similar phenomenon occurs in groups of humans grappling with situations of chronic incivility. If one member of their group shows patterns of aggressive behaviour, the other colleagues are left working in a climate of relational uncertainty.

Their brains interpret the aggressive behaviour as a potential social risk. The group’s energy is then diverted away from work, towards self-protection. In other words, it is not the conflict itself that wears down team members, but the energy they spend anticipating and avoiding it.

Prey use three strategies to survive under this pressure. The same strategies are used in human groups:

1. Prey synchronize their behaviour with the danger. If a........

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