Swinging Doors and Conflict Resolution

(Image by Fabianne Sibbio from Pixabay)

SWINGING doors.

These remind me of the old western movies. The cowboy pushes the doors open with both hands. He never enters the saloon through 1 side. (Cowboy 101: You cannot swagger through one side of the saloon doorway.)

Imagine you need to push both doors open (perhaps you are carrying something wide) and there is another person on the other side needing to push them too. You push; he pushes. The harder you push, the harder he pushes back.

In conflict resolution, this is called the Push-Pushback phenomenon – a surefire way to guarantee failure in resolving a conflict.

The first thing that has to be done is to reframe the situation. Are you there to ‘win’ or ‘to solve a problem’? Winning a contest is not the same as solving a problem.


(Image by Fabianne Sibbio from Pixabay)

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About the Author: Gina Phan is a consultant and trainer with Zinfinity Consulting. She currently conducts courses in workplace performance skills. Click here to contact her, follow her on Facebook or connect with her on Linkedin.

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