Managing Conflict through Communication

Keywords: Conflict, Communication, Conversations

Abstract: When do we decide to communicate, and what do we decide to say? This symposium on conflict and communication will illustrate several sub-optimal conversation phenomena, including hiding success, unwillingness to ask sensitive questions, and over apologizing. It will also highlight potential avenues for improving conversations, including increasing the frequency of pauses and the amount of silence, and keeping underlying tensions under wraps in situations where teams are highly aligned. Attendees will come away with a more nuanced understanding of why many common conversational strategies often fail to leave a good impression on others, and how to improve conversations—especially in times of conflict.