Many of the conflicts encountered in organisations arise from one-sided thinking. From being blind to interdependencies.
Posts Tagged: conflict management
Learning cultures have the capacity to agree to everything – that does not mean they must agree with everything. Change flows and when everything is seen. Once difficult perspectives are aired and respected they lose their grip on the agenda and learning grows.
Organisations are only just beginning to recognise that innovation and collaboration flourish in conflict and that the win-lose belief system in adversarial cultures that seeks to dampen and control diversity is not fit-for-purpose in a rapidly changing world.
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 deepest truth is that there is no separation between you and your opponents, other than the illusion that what separates you is important and is unbridgeable. The very moment you find yourself locked in conflict you become inseparable from your opponent, as you care deeply about many of the same things.
Or perhaps you may fear that by going deeper everything could change including how you define yourself, your opponent, and the issues. It is dangerous to be honest because that gives the other person the right to be equally honest with you.