2) Is conflict positive or negative?
It’s both. As I eluded, conflict can do a number of things. Positive conflict will often be the only way to proactively deal with issues that people or groups need to have addressed. Conflict can be the beginning to any great thing or the ending of something that needs closure.
Like all phenomena in the universe, conflict is both good and bad, yin and yang, so to speak. As Paramahansa Yogananda said, “There are always two forces warring against each other within us.”
Positive conflict can:
¨ Be the start to something new
¨ Initiate change
¨ Be the end to something that needs closure
¨ Positively redirect something off track
¨ Use diversity
¨ Promote understanding
¨ Support dialogue
¨ Enlighten someone that is unaware of a problem
¨ Be the start of something unexpected
¨ Become a life-long learning opportunity
¨ Foster self-esteem
¨ Reinforce our current abilities, strengths or contributions
¨ Help work to ensure life-long happiness
But remember, just because it is positive does not mean that it will be easy or painless.
Negative conflict can:
¨ Create more conflict
¨ Eliminate “Response Ability”
¨ Create physiological responses that impede our ability to make sound, cognitive, logical decisions
¨ Sabotage decision making
¨ Undermine creativity
¨ Re-emphasize our past poor decision making
¨ Trigger our default behavior that creates more conflict
¨ Cause anxiety, mental and physical stress and/or sickness
¨ Annihilate respect and trust
¨ Impede our ability to move forward internally or with others
¨ Create war
As previously mentioned, positive conflict, by its very nature, can signal a moment to explore perspectives, look at common interests, open lines of communication, generate learning opportunities and help us to separate the people from the problem.
We far too often see people react to conflict negatively with anger, avoidance, fear, guilt, shame, procrastination or complete shut down. But it is equally possible for individuals to choose positive thinking, to brainstorm and produce new perspectives, ideas and even a new road map or new dynamic. The process can strengthen character and reinforce how we view
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