Archive - December 2023

Conflict

Conflict is usually costly, painful and damaging.  What are the alternatives?  Some might say compassion.  Others might say community, cohesion, or connection.  Others might opt for peace or safety or kindness.  Or collaboration or cooperation. Conflicts can pass in a moment and leave no apparent trace, or they can leave deep and long-lasting physical, emotional, mental, social, or economic wounds – and at its worst, individual or collective trauma.  Not being in conflict brings a greater chance of wellbeing, of efficiency, of a sense of safety and of organisational or societal health.  Besides needing emotional intelligence, not being in conflict, or defusing conflict, can take humility, a willingness to be vulnerable, and psychological safety.  We can do worse than be guided by Marshal Rosenberg’s principles of non-violent communication, and a shift in thinking and conceptualisation from ‘you and I’ to ‘we’.