What is a conflict

- Hello. If you are watching this video, it is because you are surely going through a conflict in your work life or because you want to prepare yourself properly about how to manage conflicts that may arise in the future in your organization. Whatever the case, I will share with you some ideas and strategies and methodologies so that you can manage conflicts in the best possible way for everyone looking for overcoming solutions in which the parties can benefit and be strengthened. I will then speak to you from a place where it is possible to manage conflicts for the benefit of the parties. We'll start by analyzing what is and isn't a conflict so that you can identify them correctly. I will share with you some definitions that will be key to understanding conflict management throughout the course. Conflicts occur between people who perceive that they have different positions on certain issues and feel that their interests cannot be satisfied jointly and simultaneously. Conflicts occur when there is a lack of agreement on specific topics or issues. Conflicts are often confused with problems. Problems arise in certain situations that do not allow people to achieve a desired end. They are facts or circumstances. I don't have a conflict with the wheel or with the car. I have a problem if I get a flat tire, a problem that is solved by changing the wheel. It is a circumstance that prevents people from achieving any end. In the conflict, there are always two people who perceive that they have different interests because different perceptions appear because we have different ideas, different beliefs, different assumptions that make us unable to agree because we have different mental models. Mental models are constructions that we develop throughout our lives, which are made up of supposed values, beliefs, experiences that are deeply rooted in us, of which we are often unaware and that operate almost automatically in the face of different circumstances of reality. We build our idea of reality based on these mental models that we are developing. We do not observe reality as it is, but as we are, and this is how we act, and this idea of reality supposes two basic positions to see reality in a single or univocal way or to see reality in a multiple way. In the univocal way, people consider that reality is independent of people's different points of view. Therefore, it is external to people. It is simple, objective, coherent, and our opinions will be true or false depending on whether they conform to reality. Reality is the truth. We should all be seeing the same thing if we don't think the same, and I'm right. The other side is the one who is wrong, the one who is wrong. The other stance in the face of reality is to see reality in a multiple way. The reality of that time complex, heterogeneous is impossible to cover with a single glance. Each person perceives and interprets reality according to their mental models. Objectivity is impossible. Objectivity is then going to be an agreement between people, and so it becomes objective, but it is not objective in itself. Learning is being able to become aware of our partiality, of our subjectivity, of our point of view, and to accept that the point of view of the other can be as valid, true, and real as ours. From the multiple reality, conflict is always a learning option where we open ourselves to listen to the perceptions and interpretations made by another person, and hence we can build a more complete reality. So we have seen that conflict is an inherent part of human relationships, so we have to expect conflicts to be generated within organizations. Is the secret then to prepare properly, to be able to manage them, knowing that they are going to happen?