The Bottom Line Managing Conflict Radio 4
Evan Davis shall always get my vote.
His skill lies in talking complex economics in a simple way. He is never patronising.
The Bottom Line feels like a natural home for him.
In this episode, Managing Conflict, three experts in the field talked about the inevitability of conflict and how to resolve it.
It was interesting... even for those of us who prefer never to manage people and who prefer to soak in the warm bath of autonomy.
Take email – you can’t resolve conflict by email, it can be death by 1,000 blows.
Office conflict can start with something that can feel quite trivial like “Who drank from my cup” but from there it can escalate.
When there is such conflict, expert mediator David Liddle said, you can follow the path he likes to call “the precipice of doom” where battle lines are drawn and communication dives out the window, followed by escalation and destructive behaviours.
Trying to win the fight by shouting louder and becoming more vitriolic damages not only the debate but how we resolve issues.
Yes, there was plenty of food for thought.
The message was that conflict is unavoidable but it is how we deal with it that matters.
We can choose to write a 20,000 word email to HR about the other party or bitch about them behind their backs.
Or we can go into a room and have the best conversation possible with the other person.
The key is to really listen and to be transparent - to be really honest.
The message was to contain the anger and to think constructively and rationally - people need to feel respected and heard.
Conflict is natural, it’s how it is managed that’s the challenge.
It all felt very reasonable and rational ... but are the politicians listening?
