After recently experiencing a conflict with a personal friend, two strategies that I have found that may be beneficial in finding an amicable solution are affective listening and avoiding a defensive climate. Active listening may help the situation being that it conveys to my friend that I am engaged in the conversation and lets them know that I care about what they are saying as opposed to only trying to get my point across. Once both parties employ active listening, it helps each person discover the root of the issue is and may facilitate a quicker, more effective solution. Another way to resolve our conflict more productively would be by avoiding a defensive climate. By doing this, I am eliminating blame, judgment, and relinquishing control, thus making it an even playing field so that both parties may freely express themselves. I think by using productive conflict, cooperative strategies, trading and random selection (forms of nonviolent communication), we would strengthen our relationship in the future as well. In particular, trading and random selection would generate a level of respect and care for the other person in that both are giving up something to gain something better.
I agree with you that active listening is a very important aspect to implement in communication. Sometimes I find that active listening can be harder to do than remaining calm and not defensive. Sometimes I catch myself trying to think of how I might respond to something while I should be focusing on what the person is saying. I also agree that it is very important to remain defenseless. sometimes conflict with personal friends can be even harder to resolve because deeper feelings are involved. I hope that your conflict was resolved easily. Thank you for sharing.
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