On June 2nd, Out and Equal continued our Practitioner Well-being Series led by Zander Keig, LCSW. This session focused on Conflict Management, which is the process of limiting the negative aspects of conflict and increasing the positive aspects.  

Zander discussed possible negative aspects such as increased stress, feeling defeated, and creating mistrust. He reframed conflict as a dance or a flow where people work together to facilitate growth. In order to increase the positive aspects, there must be compromise and active listening from all parties.  

Zander also described the 5 different types of conflict management styles and encouraged participants to evaluate what style they lean towards when conflict arises. He explained how we can better adapt and shift to working with all different types of styles while still prioritizing positive conflict.  

The five types of conflict management are avoidance, accommodation, competition, compromise, and collaboration. These styles are based on how you balance your assertiveness, which is a focus on your needs, and your cooperation, which is your focus on the other’s needs. For example, a competitive style would be only focused on your assertiveness, while an accommodating would be only focused on cooperativeness. The collaborating style equally balances both your needs and the other person’s needs to come to a mutually benefical outcome.  

We welcome you to join us for our last Well-Being seminar:  Navigating Uncertainty and Avoiding Burnout on Thursday, June 16th, 2022, 3-4pm ET/ 12-1pm PT and to refer back to our past session recordings.  

Resources: 

Crum, Thomas. Book Magic of Conflict, 1998.  

Assessment Tools to Explore Your Management Style: 

Adkins, Reginald PhD. Conflict Management Styles Quiz Source, 2006.  

Conflict Management Styles Assessment, 2017.  

TKI instrument, Conflict Style Assessment. 

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