Perhaps not
quite fascinating but more concerning is when one googles “Conflict Resolution”
one receives over 400 million hits in less than a second. No, I have not
investigated these sites and have no intention of doing so. It was merely a
brief moment in time when the mind wanders and I became a statistic…
Nonetheless according to google, and I
quote: “Conflict resolution is a way for two or more parties to find a peaceful
solution to a disagreement among them. The disagreement may be personal,
financial, political or emotional. When a disagreement arises, often the best
course of action is negotiation to resolve disagreement.”[1]
An article
from AIU (Atlantic International University) suggests that some 22 000
people search the internet under the heading “Conflict Resolution” each month
and further suggests this gives the topic relevance. If we play with statistics
and use the population of the world to understand how many could then be
searching the internet… then 22 000 out of 7.9 Billion becomes
infinitesimally small and one can argue that this number searching for said
topic is statistically irrelevant. But let us not dwell on the merits of
numbers and allow ourselves to become “conflicted” shall we say. Instead it is
my intention in this short paper, not to try and do what the Sumerians did in
lower Mesopotamia[2]
(Modern day Iraq) in the 4th century BC and try and reinvent the
wheel, or perhaps in this case “reinvent the plethora of conflict resolution
methods” which abound, but rather to explore some of the causes of conflict as
this tends to be overlooked as one delves into the “how’s” of resolving
conflict.
Since I began
exploring this topic earlier, (a brief bit of research done in 2023) some
91 000 people have died and some 216 000 have been born.
Interestingly with the Covid19 pandemic not far from most thoughts, I decided
to do a quick bit of research and found that out of the 91 000 deaths,
approximately 12 000 have been Covid related. Why am I mentioning these
facts in a topic with the heading “Conflict Resolution”? Very simply I believe that in reading this,
the average reader has begun to develop a point of view in relation to my
discussion and could well have moved to a contrary position. He/she could well
be frowning and saying: Why am I mentioning these things? Why is he bringing
Covid into the discussion? Why is World Population/World Deaths relevant?
Holding a
point of view, suggesting certain ideas and leaving words on paper with little
or no explanation, but merely putting them out there holds the possibility of
conflict. I started this conversation suggesting that perhaps we should be
looking at the causes of conflict rather than how to resolve conflict for surely
if we are able to isolate the causes, we have the means to resolve it.
In Genesis 1
vs 25 we read that God created the animal kingdom…and afterwards announces that
“it was good”. He then creates man and from then on nowhere do we read that He
says it is good. It is only man who pronounces thereafter, “that God is good”.
Is this perhaps not a sad indictment on mankind? Once Man (and I use a capital
to denote, all of Mankind) had been created and Man usurped the knowledge of
good and evil, conflict entered the world. And ever since then we have wrestled
with the how to of solving the conflict that we, ourselves brought into the
world. No this is not a religious or Christian or Muslim or Hindu or any one of
any other religions attempt to solve the world’s challenges, but rather a
statement to assert that we do not have the answers to solving conflict.
As I write
armed conflict rages across the world, (as
usuaL?) Africa being a centre for conflict across the world with most of Africa
involved in one form of conflict or another (and I specifically refer to armed
conflict) This conflict is essentially caused by the need for power. Power to
control, rule and assert authority. But what for? So that we can live in peace is oft the
response. How absurd! But sadly more
than a modicum of truth in that statement.
Allow me to
digress briefly as I again consider the pandemic that raged across the world and how it caused conflict. I
do not refer to death as a cause for conflict even though Covid is ostensibly
responsible for many deaths, but rather how the world reacted to the pandemic.
The so- called rich nations immediately were able to launch into vaccination
programs. Purchasing vast quantities of personal protection equipment,
ventilators, oxygen, medical personnel trained and equipped. Poorer nations
stood by and waited for handouts. Here in Africa and I refer to my own country,
South Africa, with a population of over 60 million, to date (late 2021) some
400 000 had been vaccinated. Compare this to the United Kingdom for
example where 70% of the population of 67 million (2021)[3]
have been vaccinated at least once.
The sad fact
that the world consists of haves and have nots, will always cause conflict.
That people are hungry whilst others have surfeit of food will cause conflict.
It is very
easy to consider how one can attempt to resolve conflict. The methodology is
not complicated. Here in South Africa we have the CCMA, The Commission for
Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, which arose essentially out of a need
to resolve Labour related disputes… (Unfair dismissals from work for example).
The CCMA uses basic legal arguments to resolve issues. The Aude alteram partem
rule which simply means to listen to the other side, is crucial to resolving
any dispute, and one would certainly add that the ability to listen, and listen
attentively without prejudice is crucial in any conflict situation.
As a School
Headmaster I deal with conflicts at all levels on a daily basis, some are
serious, others easily resolved, but allow me to share an aspect of the ability
to “LISTEN” which one needs to develop early on and which goes a long way to
allowing peace to reign. Some years ago I had a delightful Art teacher, a young
man filled with amazing ideas and not easily satisfied or able to “tow the
line”. He would rage at the way things were done, forms that needed completion,
interviews with parents and a legion of other things which did not fit his
paradigm. We, him and I, then developed a system where he would , unannounced enter my office and
proceed to bewail his fate, launch into all and sundry in terms of what he
wanted in life and the school and this would take some 20 minutes at which
point he would smile, turn around and quietly leave, knowing that I have
listened to him and that nothing he said would leave my office, and indeed his
relationship with me would remain intact. He would never ask me to comment or
to offer some advice, but merely to sit and listen attentively. And I was
delighted to do so as I knew he needed to vent and I as his superior was there
to listen. I must admit that unbeknown to him many of his ideas mentioned in
his ranting took root and I have used them over the years, but that was not the
purpose of having a devoted and well inclined listening ear!
Perhaps
without pertinently intending to do so I was able to ensure his morale was high
and which then enabled him to pass on positive feelings to other staff. Lacoursiere [4]identifies
two key variables that have an effect on each stage of group development. These
are “work” on the task and socio-emotional tone or “morale”. I believe the
second one, “tone or morale” to be key for me in my work over many years in
various countries as once the morale of the organization is good, conflict
tends to either disappear or be easily resolved.
Some
concluding remarks:
Allow me to
end with two quotes: One from Tom Peters, [5]
“The old saw of it ain’t broke, don’t fix it needs revision. I propose, if it
ain’t broke, you just haven’t looked hard enough. Fix it anyway.” We have a
world where we need to fix things before they are broken but sadly we do not do
so and we end up with trying to fix the broken and resolve the conflicts
therein. The second is from Dr Spencer
Johnson[6],
“It works best, of course, when everyone in your organization knows the
story-whether it is in a large corporation, a small business, or your family-
because an organization can only change when enough people in it
change”. The world…its people, need to take hands, understand each other, smile
and know that we care and love each other long before we look at all the other
needs apparent. And I include Maslows hierarchy of needs in this.
Bibliography- Conflict Resolutions: Tools to
Success
1.
Leadership & Organisational
Climate, Bottyàn Sandor: Zytek Publishing, 2004
2.
The Independent School Governor’s
Handbook, Andrew Maiden: HSBC Insurance,2009.
3.
Thriving on Chaos, Peters Tom: Pan
Books, 1989
4.
Total Leaders, Schwahn Charles J.
& Spady William G., American Association of School Administrators, 1998.
5.
Who Moved My Cheese, Johnson Spencer
Dr: Penguin, Random House UK,1999.
[1] https://ctb.ku.edu (Section 6. Training for Conflict
Resolution)
[2] https:www.citeco.fr>the
origins>invention-of-the-wheel
[3] https://www.worldometers.info
[4] Leadership and Organisational
Climate, Sandor Bottyàn, page 7
[5] Thriving on Chaos, Tom Peters, page
3
[6] Who Moved My Cheese, Dr Spencer
Johnson, page 94
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