In my own romantic relationship with my boyfriend we
often have small conflicts. A continuous conflict I have noticed coming up is
when we are trying to decide what movie to watch together. He enjoys action and
comedies and I of course like the chick flicks. Recently we have been able to
find an agreement within this conflict by settling to watch a romantic comedy
together because it includes both of our interests.
I feel as though I need to work on this skill within
other relationships I am surrounded by. For example, in a disagreement with a
fellow coworker I can often hold a grudge and remember the points of our
disagreement within our conversation. I often tend to stick to my own opinion
not allowing myself to see the conflict from a different perspective. I feel as
though I would get a lot more accomplished if I were to look at all
perspectives within the conflict and resolve the conflict by finding a mutual
point of agreement.
Resource:
Wood,
J. T. (2010). Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters (7th
ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
Emily, I like that you posted about smaller conflicts because I know most people, myself included, think of huge arguments when the word conflict is used. Handling the small conflicts is a such a huge victory because it allows for bigger arguments to not occur. Meeting in the middle and have a win-win solution to your movie problem is such a constructive way to handle it. I hope you are successful in applying this mindset to your work environment :)
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you are talking about when it comes to the little arguments about things like which movie to watch. For me it sometimes feels like those little arguments turn into huge ones and are the start of world war 3 or something!I agree with Stephanie, the win-win solution is a great option to take away those nit picking fights and reach the final goal - a night on the couch watching a movie with your significant other!
ReplyDeleteVery good point. We do tend to only focus on the ways that were right rather than wrong because it doesn't feel good to have our short comings pointed out, there in lies the conflict. Now that I know about this I'll keep it in mind but the likelihood of actually accomplishing this would be amazing
ReplyDeleteI like where you were going with this blog, but more details is needed.
ReplyDelete