Is it possible to stay conflict-free at your workplace? Is it actually the best possible situation? What I have learned from A. Hockley's presentation is that actually conflicts can be beneficial if they are functional, and the group involved in the conflict (even if there are only a couple of people involved) is self-critical and is ready for innovation. Equally bad are situations when the level of conflict is low or if there is none as well as when it is high.

In his presentation A. Hockley presented a model of conflict resolution in organizations, but they can also apply to conflict resolution in the classroom. He mentioned the sources of conflict and its possible causes and presented possible ways of dealing with them, which differ depending on the level of assertion and cooperation in dealing with the situation.

Conflicts thus vary according to the level of concern for your own interests and those of the others, bringing us to a variety of outcomes. For example, if people involved in the conflict have an equal status and can't resolve their conflict themselves, they will find themselves in the equal win or lose situation (compromise). If people involved in the conflict are ready to collaborate, the conflict can be resolved to the benefit of both sides and both parties will win.

What to do then if you find yourself in a conflict? The "recipe" seems to be rather simple: you should know yourself, try to manage your emotions, let the person you are in conflict with time to cool off, be an active listener, find out where you (dis)agree, focus on the problem, not the person, decide what both sides should do, show appreciation to the person for working with you and, finally, follow up the results.

If you are the person who has to resolve the conflict, you must make sure you listen to both sides of the argument, but act in the best interests of the organization. In addition, people should be informed about why you acted the way you did and why you made the decision you made.

Finally, you should reflect on the conflict, which can be really helpful in the future.

I was quite inspired by the presentation and so were other people in the audience. It showed me some ways of looking at different conflicts had at my workplace from a different perspective and got me thinking about how to make the most of them if they happen.:)