Intelligent Outcomes for Success

Conflict Resolution

1. Are you at your wits end because you feel like you have tried everything to get along with someone and you just don’t see any progress?
2. Do you feel the level of stress in your life is elevating due to this problem?
3. Do you go out of your way to avoid this person, although you care about them?

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, that means that you are faced with a conflict situation and you can benefit from learning some hands-on skills to effectively deal with the conflict once and for all.

Conflict is a normal part of any healthy relationship. After all, people can’t be expected to agree on everything, all the time. Learning how to deal with conflict, in other words conflict resolution – rather than avoidance – is crucial. When conflict is mismanaged, it can cause great harm to a relationship. But when handled in a respectful, positive way, conflict provides an opportunity to strengthen the bond between two people. One of the toughest challenges is work conflict.  At least at home, you feel more secure to express your true feelings, whereas at work, because you fear the repercussions, expression of true feelings is not the first priority.  In truth, regardless of what parties of conflict say are the reasons for their conflict, we have through many years of practice and research found that, the feelings underneath are the actual and factual basis By learning the true feelings, and the right skills for conflict resolution, one’s sense of security and pleasure is validated.  In managing workplace conflict, an atmosphere of bullying, a family business in disarray, or a department, unit, or board full of pretense doesn’t have to be accepted as is.  You can either succumb to the status quo, or  you can take charge and enroll the assistance of a professional mediator to equip you with the tools you need to build  your personal and professional relationships strong and growing and resolve work conflict.

Our Conflict Resolution Process:

1.  Assessment of the parties involved regarding their skills, personalities and goals.
2. Uncovering areas of challenge
3. Realization of individual challenges one at a time
4. Addressing the dynamics between the parties
5. Bringing concensus to the process and reaching for agreeable outcomes

Healthy and unhealthy ways of managing and resolving conflict
Unhealthy responses to conflict:	Healthy responses to conflict:
An inability to recognize and respond to the things that matter to the other person	The capacity to recognize and respond to the things that matter to the other person
Explosive, angry, hurtful, and resentful reactions	Calm, non-defensive, and respectful reactions
Withdrawal, Judgement, resulting in rejection, isolation, shaming, and fear of abandonment	A readiness to forgive and forget, and to move past the conflict without holding resentments or anger
An inability to compromise or see the other person’s side	The ability to seek compromise and avoid punishing
The fear and avoidance of conflict; the expectation of bad outcomes	A belief that facing conflict head on is the best thing for both sides

• Conflict is more than just a disagreement. It is a situation in which one or both parties perceive a threat (whether or not the threat is real).
• Conflicts continue to fester when ignored. Because conflicts involve perceived threats to our well-being and survival, they stay with us until we face and resolve them.
• We respond to conflicts based on our perceptions of the situation, not necessarily to an objective review of the facts. Our perceptions are influenced by our life experiences, culture, values, and beliefs.
• Conflicts trigger strong emotions. If you aren’t comfortable with your emotions or able to manage them in times of stress, you won’t be able to resolve conflict successfully.
• Conflicts are an opportunity for growth. When you’re able to resolve conflict in a relationship, it builds trust. You can feel secure knowing your relationship can survive challenges and disagreements.

Workplace Mediation

There are times when the workplace conflict clearly involves a single conflict situation between specific employees. In these cases, workplace mediation is the cost-efficient option of intervention that results in a positive resolution for all involved.

Workplace mediation creates a win-win solution that resolves the issue and transforms the continued working relationship from troubled and disruptive to successful and productive. Workplace mediation is the optimal means of resolving specific conflicts between employees in the workplace.  Targeted mediation prevents escalation and allows everyone to move forward quickly without continued focus on the disruptive dispute. An experienced workplace mediator facilitates a resolution to the dispute where all parties are in agreement with the conclusion, and thus more likely to adhere to the agreements reached. All for a fraction of the cost of any other intervention (or non-intervention).

Successful conflict resolution depends on your ability to regulate stress and your emotions.  Because our mediation program incorporates the principles of Emotional Intelligence, you can bet it will not only help you learn conflict resolution skills, but it will also equip you to acheive best results because you were able to incorporate both thoughts and feelings effectively in problem solving.  In diads or situations where there are two sides, it takes only one side to practice strong conflict resolution skills, for the progress to happen.  Something as simple as avoiding bad body language can stir the direction of a conversation.  You cannot depend on the capabilities of others, but you can build yours through conflict resolution training.

As opposed to what we are commonly taught compromise is not always the healthy choice. Are you ready to put an end to the emotional roller coaster and learn the tools to manage conflict?

Conflict Resolution for Leaders

Take the Quick Conflict Resolution Self-Test

Wonder where your skills are? Here is a quick and easy self-evaluation.

More Reading and Tips on Conflict Resolution…

In many ways business relationships are like any other relationship. Along with the potential positive aspects of a relationship, come the potential conflicts and problems. Conflicts are emotionally crippling, high financial liabilities, and lead to low just satisfaction, absenteeism, and staggeringly high rates of turnover. When conflicts arise in what is seen as a professional business or workplace relationship or transaction, it often feels much more personal than professional. The tendency may be to call in lawyers to settle the dispute through litigation. However more and more, those in conflict find that mediation provides an effective and efficient means of resolution to business or other civil disputes, with significant cost-savings. Unresolved, workplace issues can end up in Litigation, easily costing a company $50,000 to $100,000 in attorney fees and taking 3 to 5 years to settle.

We are experts in conflict resolution.

Our commitment at Center for Work Life is value-based and shared positive language resolution. By assisting all parties through the process – preventing the additional stress, cost, and disempowerment that so often comes with ongoing conflict.

Just like any conflict or dispute – individuals involved in a business or civil conflict are going to respond in different ways. Some people will avoid the conflict at all costs – much like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand. Some will try to “win” at the onset by bullying or bossing the person they are conflict with.

Mediation is a means where the disputants can engage in a process that supports the shared interests of the parties, building on their areas of agreement, and moving past the emotional positions that support the conflict.