It’s hard to deny that when several personalities, work styles, and responsibilities are meant to work together under stressful circumstances, confrontation is inevitable. Confrontation can start small and stay small, depending on the circumstances, including how everyone involves reacts. But confrontation can also be the breeding ground for large-scale conflict which can have negative impacts...
This week’s conflict resolution tip is about getting out of autopilot when in conflict. When we get into conflict, we usually feel our needs are threatened in some way. In reaction to this perceived threat, our sympathetic nervous system activates, and we go into fight or flight mode. This makes us defensive and offensive towards...
This week’s conflict resolution tip is about the importance of acknowledging impact when in conflict. This is an incredibly important part of conflict resolution, especially when attempting to reconcile something that happened in the past. Often, when someone has an issue with something we have done, we like to immediately find solutions to resolve the...
If you find yourself in a situation where you’ve wronged someone in some way, you likely have had the feeling that you need to apologize to them. But apologizing is often much easier said than done. When we find ourselves in these situations, we often wonder how to give a sincere apology that repairs some,...
How can one best give an honest apology? It is no surprise that apology is a very complex subject. The common situations that require one to give an honest apology are often emotionally overheated and almost always involve some sort of conflict. Some people are inclined to avoid admittance of wrongdoing at all costs while...
This week’s conflict resolution tip is about being assertive instead of being aggressive when in conflict. When we get into conflict with one another, we often wind up operating out of two extremes: aggression or avoidance. Either we feel the need to defend whatever we are being accused of or we feel so uncomfortable by...
Summary of: Ko, S-H., Kim, J., & Choi, Y. (2021). Compassion and workplace incivility: Implications for open innovation. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 7(1):95, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc7010095 Background & Theory This article explores how compassion might impact workplace incivility; in other words, how does treating each other kindly and respectfully and caring for...
This week’s conflict resolution tip is about the importance of speaking calmly and respectfully when in conflict. It may seem somewhat obvious to suggest that we should speak calmly and respectfully with each other to maintain cooperative relationships, but this isn’t always so obvious when in conflict. When we’re in conflict, we often feel emotionally...
We know conflict is inevitable in stressful situations where a myriad of personalities rely on each other to get things done. Avoiding conflict entirely is not only typically impossible, but it can be an ineffective way of handling tension that’s on the verge of erupting into something more. While avoiding conflict may feel like the...
Summary of: Bas-Sarmiento, P., Fernández-Gutiérrez, M., Baena-Baños, M., Correro-Bermejo, A., Sergio Soler-Martins, P., & de la Torre-Moyano, S. (2020). Empathy training in health sciences: A systematic review. Nurse Education in Practice, 44, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102739 Background & Theory This article explored how empathy training can impact people in the workplace, in this case, specifically those in...
