What Do You Do When Conflict Arise?

Conflict is an inevitable part of our lives. Every individual in this world will face conflict at some point in their lives. But what is it that causes conflict and what do you do when conflict arise?

According to dictionary.com, conflict is "to come into collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition; clash”. Just from this explanation, you can clearly tell that conflict is caused by thinking differently from others and opposing other people’s perspectives on things.

Let’s say there is a conflict between A and B. A thinks he’s right, so therefore he says B is wrong. But B thinks he is right, so he says A is the wrong one. Both parties are adamant about their thinking and are too stubborn to change the way they think. They both don’t want to try and look at things from the other side’s perspective. When this happens, how will we know who is right or wrong? What do we do when such conflict like this arises?

Roger Darlington wrote in his website (rogerdarlington.co.uk) some of the ways to resolve conflicts. I will just state those that I think seems to be the best and most effective way to solve conflict. The first one is, of course, showing respect. I think a conflict will be solved much quicker if you make sure your arguments are in topic. Attack the argument, not the person. Like Nelson Mandela said, “I defeated my opponents without dishonoring them.” Disrespecting the other party will just complicate things further, resulting in a longer time to solve the conflict.

Next would be asking a third party to step in and help solve the conflict. I think it’s nice to have fresh ideas from people outside the conflict. These fresh ideas may be a splash of cold water to the parties involved in the conflict and may help them to think in a different way, helping to solve the conflict faster.

If a third party isn’t available, try proving your statement. Prove to the other party that what you said is correct. Be honest. If, after your research, your statement happens to be wrong, just sincerely apologize.

Conflict isn’t always a negative thing. Sometimes it can open windows that will make you view the world differently. Conflict only becomes negative when the people involved cannot fix or handle it.  Therefore it is very important that we know what to do when a conflict arises.