Strategy #6 Embrace Paradox

Conflict Management Strategy #6 of 10

When you view conflict as complex and multi-faceted and approach it with a learning orientation you will find that the paradoxes and contradictions found at the core of the conflict will lead to more creative and successful solutions.

The German philosopher Hegel noted that people have a right to their problems and conflicts. By stepping in too quickly with simple solutions, we risk robbing them of the opportunity to learn from experience and to discover that they are fully capable of resolving their own issues.

By not over-simplifying their natural complexity you can mine organisational conflicts for new information leading to novel solutions. You can turn conflict into a source of learning, growth and transformation.

Consider these three fundamental shifts in how to approach conflict:

  1. Adopt a positive attitude towards conflict. Your attitude is always a critical element in problem-solving. Experiment with appreciating the paradox inherent in the conflict, being curious about its root cause, having humility regarding your own role in creating the problem, openness to novel solutions and optimism regarding a successful outcome.
  1. Treat conflict management as a collaborative process. In complex organisations it is impossible for leaders to dream up solutions on their own. Rather the leader’s role is to facilitate the participative processes and dialogue that enable problem-solving with minimal influence and intervention from hierarchy.
  1. Solve the problem-solving problem by shifting from a control-oriented methodology that excludes people to a learning-oriented methodology that includes people.

Conflicts cannot be fully resolved without regard to the organisational context that gave rise to them. The opportunity is not so much to resolve the issue you are fighting over but to understand how you got stuck in the first place and what you can learn from that.

The psychologist Carl Jung observed that all important problems are insoluble because they express the natural polarity inherent in self-regulating systems. “They can never be solved, but only outgrown…”

Conflict management strategy #1 Decode the culture

Conflict management strategy #2 Listen Empathetically

Conflict management strategy #3 Search for Hidden Meanings

Conflict management strategy #4 Reframe Emotions

Conflict management strategy #5 Separate Wheat from Chaff

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