When we were children we most likely have had fights and arguments with others and may have said something like “I’m rubber you’re glue, your words bounce off me and stick to you”. Our younger selves have thought this is a way to resolve conflict and feel better about ourselves. However, as we grow up and mature in the process, we realize that resolving a dispute is complex and requires practice and skill.
Who matters more?
My experience in dealing with conflict resolution was on my first job with a construction company. One of the first projects that I was tasked with was helping to maintain the schedule of the stages of the project. This project also involved other construction companies that had their own responsibilities on site. We had a limited amount of space to work with and at times will need to collaborate with each other about who could occupy space in order to complete our task.
This often leads to a conflict of self-interest because we all want to accomplish our goals and move on to the next step. The important thing is to understand each other’s goals and come up with a solution together to accomplish this.
For me, there were many times during that project I was put into that situation and had to figure out ways to resolve conflict. The result varies, it could go my way and we are able to get things done, but other times we would have to give up time on our side because of other groups’ schedules. Most of the time, however, we were able to talk things out and come to an agreement on how to handle the situation.
Looking to the Future
As I went through the OSU Post-bacc program, there were many times were students had to work in groups. I would say that in this environment we all strive to accomplish our academic goals and all wish for each other to succeed. This sometimes does not create many areas for us to practice conflict resolution. Looking back at the place I worked I understand that going into an industry that involves computer science there would be many times that we will be running into a lot of conflict with other groups within a company. It is something that we as individuals need to continuously practice our soft skills. Since it is important for us to be networking with others as students and future co-workers it is equally important to maintain these because they could be helping us out one day.
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