When two teammates are beefing, the leader’s job isn’t to pick a side. It’s to pick the team.

Refereeing a conflict like a court case makes it worse, because now there is a verdict and one person has lost in public. The thing worth protecting is not fairness in the abstract, it is whether these two can work together on Thursday. That usually means getting them talking to each other rather than through you. Your judgment matters less here than your insistence that the group keeps functioning.

If two people near you are stuck, say plainly that you are not picking a winner. Get them in the same place, ask each to say what they actually need, and hold the room while they do.