51: Ep 051 - Why Embracing Conflict is Professionally & Personally Beneficial

SHRM Global Radio

Conflict. Hearing this word in a professional context gives us pause, doesn’t it? None of us wants unpleasantness at work, and yet we have all been guilty, at one point or another, of avoiding confrontations or stressful interactions in order to steer clear of conflict. But that is precisely the reason we must address the subject. The conflict between colleagues can lead to massive loss of time & energy, lead to individual (or even team-wide) procrastination, damage work culture, negatively affect results, and even spiral into outright bitter litigation and lifelong enmities.
We won’t get into too many platitudes about peace and conflict resolution in this podcast. Well, maybe just one: Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, "Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means." That gentleman did know a thing or two about conflict resolution in the political sphere, but he may have been onto something more all-encompassing there. The ability to handle conflict is a hard-won skill and must be wielded firmly yet with subtlety and deftness. In this podcast, we’ll look at 3 ways you can do that at your workplace, and the benefits that accrue from such choices.