Conflict is not bad
Heather Vescent in her blog brought up the issue of conflict and who found some clarity in Gallups Strengths Finder book which showed that one of her 5 key strength was “Command”. A strength that does not fear conflict but sees it for what it is.
I wanted to add my thoughts on Heather’s reconciling her relationship with conflict:
Many people confuse conflict with a lack of cooperation.
The concept of Fierce Conversations as a concept and as outline in the book by Susan Scott makes clear the value of not just agreeing for the sake of it.
Many people like meetings where they are managed to zero conflict. This is great for a cult but it really makes for a weak business. Diverse thought makes for a strong solution and a good manager evaluates all ideas not just those that are close to his/her world view.
I think when dealing with conflict it is always good to have some ground rules like dealing with problems and issues and not people. Just because someone prefers another path does not make them the problem.
Also being solution oriented and not problem oriented is always a better way to deal with conflict.
If people were more willing to approach conflict and engage in fierce conversations then we would get farther faster and with less pain.