The conflict is a word that causes many of us a great degree of discomfort, anger, frustration, sadness and even pain. The conflict is no stranger to any of us. We experience it all the time in our daily lives, with our families, friends and more and more in our professional life. It is a regular aspect of life.
Today we live in a flat world as a great global village. There is an increase in the diversity of the workforce by which organizations have teams composed of employees of different geographical locations, various cultural and cognitive origins with different perspectives. In the workplace where people have different perspectives on the same issues, sooner or later, there will surely be disagreements sooner or later.
The conflict can occur when different points of view or opinions come to light. When the conflict can be seen as nothing more than different points of view, prepare the stage for possible positive results for the problem in question.
The idea is not to try to prevent disagreements, but to resolve and manage conflicts effectively. When individuals or equipment can use appropriate resolution tools and skills to address a problem, they can maintain their differences by increasing problems.
Establishing some type of conflict management process within an organization is much better than allowing avoidance, denial, passive-agreesive indirection or the plot of how to happen among employees. In the conflict resolution process, individuals and equipment can explore and understand their differences and use information to interact more positively and productively.
Below are five basic steps to continue to resolve a conflict.
1. Identify a safe place and time to speak
To allow constructive conversation, people generally need to feel that they are in a “safe place”, one that will allow them to face the risk of honest communication about the problems in question.
This means finding a private and neutral room, a place other than the office of one person or another. For conversations that begin in a more public place, it is useful if the two people can move to a more private area within the room.
Make sure the amount of time for a meeting is acceptable and appropriate for all parties. Complex disagreements cannot be resolved in fifteen minutes or less. If time is limited, determine the criteria for discussion and then fix an hour and date for immediate monitoring.
2. Clarify the individual perceptions involved in the conflict
Each part involved in the conflict must have the opportunity to express their perception or understanding of the conflict. A problem cannot be solved if it is not clear what the problem is about.
Start by classifying the parts of the conflict. Put on the heart directly and avoid unrelated problems, not about the conflict in question. Discuss facts and eliminate the emotion of the situation. Identify problems clearly and concisely.
When this process is submitted, each person must recognize that everyone must participate in being the most effective.
3. Practice taking an active and empathic listening posture
To obtain a positive result in the negotiation of solutions to the labor conflict, it is vital that we resist the desire to force our ideas to others and, instead, make a arranged effort to hear what is being transmitted. If we can practice active listening, the probability that the other person’s ideas and thoughts be heard (as well as ours).
By advocating empathy, team members can identify the thoughts or feelings of the other person and have the ability to understand the point of view of the other person. When the teams take a listening position in the negotiation process, they prepared the stage for the opportunity to share their concerns about the conflict.
4. Generate options with the vision of a win-win result
In conflict resolution, a win-win strategy is a conflict resolution process that aims to accommodate all parties and arises from a sense of justice. Explore and be creative in the search for alternatives and the use of an external facilitator or mediator if you think it would be beneficial for the group involved in negotiations.
Start by taking a problem at the same time, starting with a problem in which the parties agree is worthy of discussion. Generate several possible solutions to the problem through the “rain of ideas” collectively ideas. Write the diverse ideas in a flipple so that everyone can see them. Defer any judgment or evaluation at this stage until all ideas have been presented to the group.
