Activity: Conflict Resolution

Open Questions or Statements

There is no question that conflict in the workplace is challenging, especially if trust was broken. To initiate and open a dialogue—leaning into conflict means taking a risk and insists on courage and vulnerability.

Sometimes, just sometimes, we actually owe an apology due to our actions. We can open dialogue by expressing an apology first.

To open the lines of communication here are examples of questions or statements to everyday workplace scenarios*:

• “I’d like to talk to you about this morning’s meeting. Is there anything I need to repair or address? I wouldn’t want to snag our process."
• “I’ve been feeling some tension, could we meet to talk?”
• “I’d like to understand what happened so that we don’t have this happen again and I can learn from this situation."

Conflict could arise from a mismatch of intention and impact. For example, an individual’s intention might have been to talk about a particular topic, however their impact was hurtful.

Here are a couple of ways to open the dialogue for two different situations*:

• “It was my intention to gain some clarity about “X” and I can see my words may have negatively  impacted you.”
• “I was impacted by what you said at our team meeting today. I feel embarrassed and humiliated. What was your intention?”