Conquering conflict

Sorry there was no blog yesterday. I was at an all-day conflict management Leadership Forum for work yesterday. My main conflict was taking pictures with the digital camera from work, and taking notes so I can do a write-up for our newsletter. It was a good session--we had over 100 people attending from our regional churches, and many people were quite grateful for the opportunity to come and learn.

We learned about 5 styles of dealing with conflict:
Avoidance
Accommodation
Compromise
Competition
Collaboration

Collaboration is the best method, where all parties sit down together and discuss the needs of each individual in order to address the conflict in a healthy way. Once needs are determined, the group can work together to see how best every person's needs can be met.

I found out that I, like most of the church workers/pastors who were in attendance, am an avoider of conflict. I'd rather walk away from a fight than deal with it. I learned that conflict isn't bad, just the ways we deal with conflict.

So, I avoided blogging yesterday. What does that say? Compromise, which I thought was a good thing, is really not--because each party involved loses something. I'm definitely not a competitor, but I am quite a bit of an accommodator as well--trying to make sure other parties are happy.

Anyway, today I am avoiding housework, and I will try to compromise by cleaning one area while having someone else clean another. Instead, we should collaborate by discussing the needs of our family to have a clean house and determine how we can all meet each others' needs.

Or something like that. Maybe I should go over my notes again. Right now, Raven needs me to take him for a walk. And I guess he is Top Dog around here, so his needs always get met.

Till next time,


Suzi