Conflict

Is conflict good or bad – or are there different types of conflict?

How do you handle conflict? Most of us don’t relish it but accept that it is inevitable.

This month we are going to explore the role of conflict in the workplace.

In the meantime, here are some wise words to broaden your perspective:

• In conflict, being willing to change allows you to move from a point of view to a viewing point – a higher, more expansive place, from which you can see both sides. – Thomas Crum
• “The aim of argument and of discussion, should not be victory, but progress.” – Joseph Joubert
• The better team members are to engage, speak, listen, hear, interpret and respond constructively, the more likely their teams are to leverage conflict rather than be leveled by it.  – Craig Runde and Tim Flanagan
• “If necessity is the mother of invention, conflict is its father.” – Kenneth Kaye
• The more we run from conflict, the more it masters us; the more we try to avoid it, the more it controls us; the less we fear conflict, the less it confuses us; the less we deny our differences, the less they divide us. – David Augsburger
• “There are three ways of dealing with difference: domination, compromise, and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish.” – Mary Parker Follett
• In business, when two people always agree, one of them is irrelevant. – William Wrigley
• “When people respond too quickly, they often respond to the wrong issue. Listening helps us focus on the heart of the conflict. When we listen, understand, and respect each other’s ideas, we can then find a solution in which both of us are winners.” – Dr. Gary Chapman