An invaluable and vital element to any good collaboration is conflict resolution. Dealing artfully with conflict comes with experience and students need to continually work to develop this skill throughout their academic, personal, and professional lives.
In any collaboration, disagreements are expected and not something to shy away from in group work. They oblige team members to understand the dynamics of the debate, make objective arguments, compromise and recognize the rights of each member.
Working constructively and effectively involves identifying areas of agreement and disagreement. This usually follows discussions, debates, or arguments that describe the needs, desires and perspectives of each member of the team. When that happens, young people begin to learn key aspects of collaboration and conflict resolution between team members including:
Finally, members must then accept the team consensus, adhere to an agenda, and assume shared responsibility for the group results.
Maximizing and harnessing the power of diversity in the classroom, and outside, is fundamental to their future. It has become an important issue in modern management and collaborative workplace culture. Technology has made the world smaller, and today, our youth are encountering people from all over the world, of different backgrounds, ages, and experience.
In order to help them learn to appreciate, adapt to, and capitalize on their differences, we need to provide them with opportunities to collaborate by cooperating with each other in both the classroom and their daily lives.
In responding open-mindedly to different ideas and values, students will be able to work creatively and collaboratively with others. Keep in mind that mixing different backgrounds generally leads to multiple perspectives, and that’s a very good thing for collaborative work and utilizing one’s conflict resolution skills. Encourage students to deal positively and sensibly with success, challenges, obstacles, and criticism. They are all normal and healthy aspects of any group collaboration.
Have some time to spare? Here are some details on games you can try to help build collaboration and conflict resolution skills.
Forward to a friend or colleague.
Enjoyed this article? Sign up for our 7 Min Read and get power-charged, essential reads like these to your inbox every Monday morning.
