As a faith-based center, our facility is located within our place of worship. The board has been pushing to have me open the preschool rooms for weekend schools to share the space. I am against the idea for many reasons but mainly because there are two schools that operate on the weekend and should anything go missing, between the two schools, there is no one in particular to hold accountable.
The conflict has created much distress and
unnecessary tension as it turned into a power struggle. After reflecting on
this week’s reading, I realized that we have been missing the opportunity to engage
in any active listening. So far, the communication has been limited to e-mails
with no face to face communication or a chance for each side to listen to other
and perhaps reach a compromise. Billikopf (2009) suggests two very important
principles to effectively handling conflict. The first is “to seek first to
understand then to be understood” and the second is to focus our attention on
our needs rather than our position. When a person seeks to understand the other
person’s position, they are displaying respect and openness to the other’s
perspective. Furthermore, when the focus is brought back to the needs, the
discussion becomes objective and emotions become less involved. Together,
these two principals lay the foundation to effective communication and
ultimately conflict resolution.
Perhaps through cooperative strategies, a
meeting can be called where all the involved parties sit together and discuss
the available possibilities in hope of reaching a compromise.
References:
Billikopf, G. (2009, August). Conflict management skills.
Retrieved from
http://cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7labor/13.htm
Rola,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post and was surprised that the communication was via emails and there was not any face-to-face contact. How would you identify the facial expressions when you did not even see who was behind the emails. Great observation on your part.
Hi Rola,
ReplyDeleteThe first step is to set up group meeting at the school. Let the parents and staff know that you feel comfortable communicating to a group in person. With the meeting in person, you will be able to know whether the parents agree or disagree with the decisions you are making.
Hi Rola,
ReplyDeleteI like your reflection on how to approach and solve the problem. I think this course has really helped us a lot in communicating with people and minimize the chances of having conflicts. I believe conflicts will still arise because people have different thoughts and ideas about things, but if we can communicate according to these strategies, we can help creating a more peaceful world.
Lufei