Why You Should Change Your Thinking About Conflict

A friend on Facebook posted this great TED talk today.

Whether it’s in life, or relationships, or on the organizations that we are a part of, we need to change how we think about conflict.  In fact, Margaret Heffernan thinks that we should start to view conflict as thinking.

When was the last time you had your view of “reality” challenged?  Is the person who challenged your thinking still with us?  Or did you put them down?

Are you a conflict avoider?  What are a couple ways that you can intentionally build some healthy conflict into your life or your thought processes?  Write them down somewhere that you’ll be forced to look at them from time to time.

What teams, relationships, or committees do you serve on that could be called echo chambers?  What can you do to encourage contrary (real) thinking?  What organizational habits or cultural behaviours need to be rebuilt to create an organization where healthy “thinking” can happen?

I’d love to hear your experience or ideas on this!  Leave a comment and share this post if it made you think!