Hello and welcome back to Leaning Curve. Today I want to talk to you about conflict behaviours and an experience I made not too long ago which was quite upsetting at the time. I am currently doing some corporate design work for a client as part of my degree. Unfortunately the client is based in Germany so our communication is limited to E-Mail and Skype conferences.
About two weeks ago we had a conflict situation about a logo design and the expectations of my work outcome. To quickly give you an understanding of the situation here a short recap: Owner1 did not communicate directly with me, letting Owner2 explain the discrepancy in expectations regarding my work. My reaction was probably too impulsive writing an email demanding further details and defending my actions.
About two weeks ago we had a conflict situation about a logo design and the expectations of my work outcome. To quickly give you an understanding of the situation here a short recap: Owner1 did not communicate directly with me, letting Owner2 explain the discrepancy in expectations regarding my work. My reaction was probably too impulsive writing an email demanding further details and defending my actions.
Long story short: Our very different conflict behaviours hindered us to effectively talk to each other to overcome the conflict and the situation resulted in upsetting all parties.
In the aftermath I realised many things I could have done differently to promote better communication but you always know better afterwards right? So I thought I take this opportunity to explain some of the different conflict resolution approaches to give you a better understanding of your own conflict behaviour and maybe help you to find a quicker and better way to resolve your next conflicts.
1) Competing / Forcing
This approach is power oriented meaning that you use what ever measure that seems appropriate to defend the position you believe is correct.
This approach is power oriented meaning that you use what ever measure that seems appropriate to defend the position you believe is correct.
2) Accommodating
This individual neglects his own concerns to satisfy the other party involved.
3) Compromising
This approach is about finding a quick agreement that partially satisfies all parties involved.
4) Avoiding
This person does not deal with the conflict by withdrawing themselves from a threatening situation or postponing issues until a ‘better time’.
5) Collaborating
This approach involves all involved to work together to find a solution that satisfies all concerns. This is the most desirable style as it fully takes underlying needs of the individuals into account leading to a creative solution.
Reading through these approaches, I can see that my Forcing-resolution style was counterproductive in the situation I explained above. Unfortunately I noticed that I can get very passionate about my stand points in conflict situations, not willing to settle for less. However knowing this I can now work on my conflict resolution skills trying to be more patient to collaborate towards a mutual satisfying solution.
But enough talk about myself. I am curious to hear from you now. Which conflict behaviour do you find yourself using? And have you ever experienced a situation like me, where differing resolution approaches kept you from finding a solution for your problem?
Thanks for reading and commenting. Laura
