Tell me about a working relationship that never really worked, even though you tried. What did you try, and where did it end up?

Everyone has one of these; claiming otherwise is itself the answer. Asking for the unfixed case lowers the incentive to perform and separates candidates who kept the work professional through a bad fit from those who wrote the person off — including how honestly they weigh their own share of it.

• What did you try that you genuinely expected to work?
• What was your contribution to the standoff?
• How did you keep the work moving anyway?

Several genuinely different attempts rather than one gesture, their own part in it named without prompting, the work insulated from the relationship, and a realistic account of where things settled.

The other person carries the entire story, one token attempt was followed by permanent avoidance, the work visibly suffered and that's treated as inevitable, or every relationship they've ever had was apparently great.