Life has its ups and downs, joys and disappointments.  Sometimes we face challenges and have to deal with differences.  And sometimes the differences cause hassles, or conflicts.

Each of us has our own way of dealing with conflict.  The way we deal with it is based on things like our basic temperament, our personality, our environment, and our age/stage in life.

Generally speaking, there are five main styles or ways for approaching and dealing with conflict. They are avoidance, competition, accommodation, compromise, and collaboration. 

None of the styles is superior to the others, in and of itself, and each has its pros and cons.  There are times when a particular style or strategy may be more appropriate to use than at other times.  Likewise, there are other times and situations or circumstances when it could be inappropriate or ineffective to use that same style or strategy.

Valuable insights can be gained by self-assessing your strengths for conflict resolution and identifying your “go-to” style of dealing with conflicts. 

Likewise, when family members, co-workers, or members of a group, team, or organization all complete a self-assessment of their conflict management style, and then discuss the results, it can create greater awareness and understanding within the family, workplace, group, team, or organization.

A conflict management assessment tool I recently learned of is one that was designed by Reginald (Reg) Adkins. It was very easy to use. 

Rather than just provide a definition or description of the word used to label each of the five styles, Adkins’ self-assessment tool uses 15 simple statements.  Your task is to identify how often or how likely it is that your actions or behavior would match the statement.  Then you score your responses and interpret the results. 

To try it and see for yourself, visit  http://www.blake-group.com/sites/default/files/assessments/Conflict_Management_Styles_Assessment.pdf or    https://facultyombuds.ncsu.edu/files/2015/11/Conflict-management-styles-quiz.pdf. 

Let me know if you try it, and what your thoughts are!  Contact me at cindy.klapperich@ndsu.edu

Photo Source: https://pixabay.com/en/checkmate-chess-resignation-1511866/ (downloaded 5/22/18)