Some people love to be in a conflict. If this applies to you, then you better close this book and look for another one, as this book is for those people that do not like to be in conflicts, but rather like to solve them. Some people face conflicts head-on, while others tend to avoid such situations by running away from them. These people don't wait for any signs, nor look for prizes.
Many of us believe that conflicts are natural, inevitable, necessary, and normal. Many also believe that the problem with conflicts is not the existence of differences, but how we handle it. Nonetheless, many of us tend to be unwilling to admit when we are in the midst of conflict. Many business professionals are quick to assure their peers and co-workers that the fierce argument they are having with regard to a product or service is not a conflict, but just a “discussion.” Corporate America spends millions of dollars hiring facilitators to guide it in strategic planning, goal-setting, quality circles, team building, and all manner of training, but is not so willing to hire conflict resolution trainers and mediators to ask for help when internal conflicts arise.
As part of my management consulting practice at MGCG, we tend to be involved in many operational and strategic projects, but very few conflict-resolution ones. Very few honest and brave executives are willing to ask us for training on preventive conflict approaches, or to mediate a conflict. The perception is that to convey that there is a conflict is to admit a failure and to concede the existence of a situation that is doomed to failure.
