What is the difference between conflict prevention, management and resolution?
Imagine someone trying to cover a wound with a bandage. The bleeding may stop for a brief moment with direct pressure. Could it have been easier to prevent the accident in the first place? Could that individual have chosen to wear a long sleeve shirt or a jacket, maybe some gloves before hiking through the wilderness?
Our society does not want to think about, use the energy for or spend the money to prevent conflict from happening before it starts. Consider crime. If we asked a group of parents if they would be interested in more police officers, emergency and/or fire personnel, most would say yes. If we then told them how much their taxes would need to increase to support the approved initiative, most would rationalize a way to say, “Everything is truly okay and nothing happens around here, so, no, I won’t support it.”
Taking the time, energy, resources and, quite often, money to prevent conflict before it starts is the only way to ensure that we are as prepared as we can be when conflict rears its head.
Human Beings = Conflict. If we believe that premise, we can believe that preventing conflict is smart and rational and will affect our professional and personal lives. Whoever said that business wasn’t personal wasn’t looking beyond his or her experience.
Conflict Prevention incorporates a wide range of thoughts, planning, behaviors and follow-up that creates informal and formal policies, procedures and practice, otherwise referred to as the “4 P State of Mind.”
Essentially, this theory is used to describe the expectations courts of law will have on a company or organization. First, their must be policies. Secondly, we must examine the purpose of the policy in order to make sure that it is correctly stated and clear to all. Then the policies must have appropriate and clear procedures about how to follow those policies or what to do if a policy is broken. Finally, just like fire drills, procedures must be practiced. Everyone, both new hires and those who have been working for a while, needs a refresher course.
Think about it. Would it be acceptable for a school to have a fire policy but only practice it every other year? No. Policies and procedures must be put to the test practiced. The end goal is to avert the problem or at least reduce the escalation and/or damage involved.
Conflict prevention includes:
1) Engaging in self-assessment, monitoring, and positive self-talk that will allow us to avert or manage a potentially disruptive conflict. Self-talk is widely viewed as the mini-internal discussions we have with ourselves, about our lives, during quiet times.
2) Understanding the Agents of Socialization and other root causes directly related to the conflict at hand.
3) Understanding our own buttons or default behaviors enough to warn ourselves of an impending conflict and/or a potentially harmful reaction.
4) Developing a prevention-oriented mindset that understands, anticipates and proactively considers the impact of conflict in each area of personal and professional life.
5) Ensuring ourselves and those around us that we are dedicated to strengthening our skills and preventing conflict in every aspect of life.
Conflict prevention addresses a desire to gain tools and skills that will help to ensure that negativity, or conflict, never happens. But this new learning is only made useful when it is applied fairly and consistently with great reflection.
Conflict Management is about using a conflict prevention mentality and working toward resolution, self-awareness and a system or procedure for immediately dealing with conflict.
Our goal is to prevent the initiation of conflict, quickly facilitate a method for containment when it happens and enable ourselves to transform the experience into solutions, calmness, growth and life-long learning.
Conflict Resolution is a method or process of extinguishing or handling a conflict, preferably quickly, by:
¨ Identifying the main, secondary, tertiary and related issues
¨ Addressing each side’s (or internal competing) needs
¨ Adequately addressing personal and professional interests
¨ Investigating unmet professional expectations
¨ Understanding and anticipating the possible consequences of any decision (cause and effect)
¨ Allowing for the customized design of solutions between the parties involved in conflict
¨ Including all appropriate individuals and stake holders
¨ Staying solution oriented
¨ Creating a plan, making choices and confirming the outcomes
¨ Developing a plan for honest, effective feedback
¨ Actively listening to all parties involved, without interruption
¨ Resolving issues through arbitration, mediation, negotiation, alternative dispute resolution or a court of law
The more we focus on conflict prevention, the less conflict we will have to manage and resolve. Each of these stages is a part of the process of transforming conflict into an agent for positive change. For instance, the identification and elimination of the conditions that fuel conflict support prevention. Management is appropriate when conflict, as positive change, is critical for achieving the desired results. Resolution encompasses prevention and management, resulting in a paradigm shift and win-win solutions for all parties involved.
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