Conflict

When we work with others in a group, sometimes there are difference of opinion and often this situation leads to conflict. Why does it happen? This question often boggles my mind. How a group of people who are working to achieve same or at least similar goal, end up strangling each other.I’ve often found myself in such a situation where I was supposed to work with a group of people and they just wouldn’t seem to agree to what I have to say. Sometimes it feels that I’m wasting my time in arguing with them. It feels that I’d be better off in working the whole project on my own and should ask the other person/people to just relax and enjoy the applauds given to us. Sometimes they are just so adamant that they would want to do things their way.

It pains me to see so clearly that a particular task can be done so easily in a way that the other person is not willing to do. I just pull my hair out struggling to understand, why can’t they see what I’m seeing. Is it because they are so stupid? Or is it because I’ve got some kind of gift?

Reality check

Here’s the deal: when the other people/person in the group are so adamant about some task done in a different way than me, maybe, they can see it also clearly too, being done in a better and more efficient way than how I would’ve done it. I should ‘cut them some major slack’ (street slang, I’m picking it up) and try to see what they are seeing. Not everyone except me is an idiot, and I’m no God gifted ‘Super-Brain’. They are geniuses too. They might have just found a better way to do it than me.

Working with others is an art. Accepting others’ ideas and adapting to them and not neglecting your ideas requires some major skills. And this art of working with others in a group is called ‘Negotiation’.

Negotiation is the key of a group project. Everyone contributes their ideas. We should absorb as much as we can from others and make best of their ideas while also not neglecting our own ideas.

What do you think about working in groups? How do you deal with a conflict?