Old Post: How Well Do You Deal With Conflict?

8/22/2010

I took a poll a few months ago asking our readers “How Do You Handle Conflict?” 62% said “talk it out” while 25% said “avoid it” and “approach it at a later time” and only 12% said yell & scream.

I thought the findings of this poll were interesting. Reason being is some people confuse the meaning of “conflict”. People always think it’s a negative thing and it’s not always. I know you’re thinking what??? I’ve taken too many Human Comm. Classes to know. And I would hope I would know this since I’ll be earning a BA degree in this major real soon ::hand claps:: :)

Many people think conflict deals with yelling, arguing and so on. All it is is incompatible goals. Meaning there maybe a group of people can’t come to some sort of agreement or having different goals. A conflict could be something as simple as you & your siblings wanting to eat dinner at a pizza place and your parents wanting to eat out at some fancy restaurant. You may not be yelling or mad, there’s just different goals at hand.

Conflict happens in organizations, romantic relationships, friendships, families and so on. Wherever there are incompatible goals, conflict may arise.

One great way is negotiating. This is where both parties meet half way. Some of us aren’t use to doing this, which is fine, but I suggest trying new strategies.

So how do we deal with it?