Conflict

 

You can’t change how other people act in a conflict, and often you can’t change your situation.

But you can change what you do.

By choosing the approaches discussed here, you can change your conversations.

By changing your conversations, you can resolve conflict in your life.

This book provides 17 principles for conflict resolution: practical tools for individuals in difficult situations.

see conflict as a moment of opportunity

The practice of these principles helps transform how conflict is expressed. It offers a way to resolve conflict from the inside, in a manner that works for everyone involved. The principles provide encouragement to see conflict as a moment of opportunity. They urge us to recognize that we have the ability to call up the curiosity and courage needed to step away from cycles of attack and counterattack and to move, instead, with as much grace and skill as we can muster, toward resolution.

Whether or not you read the chapters in this book sequentially, I recommend taking the time to do the exercises. The ability to engage conflict effectively is a matter of practice. Anyone who wants to develop this capacity can do so.

Conflict can be both useful and inevitable.
Destructive conflict is neither.