It’s been a decade since I wrote Conflict Prevention In The Workplace – Using Cooperative Communication. Who would believe that still, when it comes to conflict, the old standards of conflict management and conflict resolution still dominate the conflict field, while the idea of preventing unnecessary conflict in the first place is almost never mentioned.
It’s passing strange. It’s clear that once a conflict gets going, it’s much harder to put the brakes on, so why not work as hard at eliminating conflict in the first place, particularly since so much of the really destructive conflicts between people are really not about issues, per se, but about how each of the parties interacts with each other.