Interpersonal conflict between people is a fact of
life and is unavoidable. Such conflict can occur at many levels of interaction –
at work, at home, in school and in various committees. Very often, such
interpersonal conflict can cause a situation of enmity and resentment, which
can lead to undesirable consequences. However, if handled adequately, these conflicts
can create a deeper mutual understanding and can improve relations between
affected parties. The consequences of the conflict – be it good or bad – is dependent
on the way the conflict is being resolved and how well people manage the
conflict. In this blog post, I will be sharing a real-life interpersonal
conflict which occurred in Science Volunteer Corps committee last year when we
were planning for a carnival event.
Ling and Lei were chosen to be the ALIVE’13 carnival’s
project ICs and they have invested time and effort in coming up with the best
event layout plan to situate all the various carnival booths. They did not
receive any feedback from the committee director, Gin, when they submitted
their layout draft plan few months before the actual carnival. Ling and Lei
continued on with their initial plan to have booths distributed across two
levels in University Town’s SRC. After the alignment of tables according to
what Ling and Lei had planned on the day just before the actual carnival, Gin
showed strong disapproval in the layout arrangement and demanded Ling and Lei
to keep all the booths to just one level. Despite how much Ling and Lei tried
to persuade Gin to keep to the original layout, efforts were to no avail and
they had to unwillingly make do with the remaining time to come up with a new
layout plan that Gin approved.
This conflict arose due to the natural differences
in human personality, beliefs and ethics. Both parties had the interests of the
beneficiaries at heart, but they focus on different aspects. Ling and Lei, on
one hand, were more concerned on the space constraint if all the booths were to
be located at just one level and the limited space might cause overcrowding at
the booths. However, on the other hand, Gin was more concerned about the kids
and elderly’s safety if they were to travel up and down the stairs to visit the
booths. This differing focus on the carnival had led to the conflict as
mentioned.
In my opinion, this conflict can be prevented if Gin
had considered the safety concerns earlier and should have given feedback to
Ling and Lei during the drafting of the layout plan so that they can revise
their plan earlier. Gin did not consider the feelings of Ling and Lei and it is
certainly not right for Gin to give such a big last minute amendment,
especially on the day just before the carnival event. Since Gin had already
assigned Ling and Lei to be the ICs for this carnival, he should respect their
decisions and follow their plan instead. Gin should have considered the
feelings of Ling and Lei and should have put himself in their shoes before
making any decisions. If Gin was concerned over the safety of the kids and
elderly, he could have instead assigned volunteers to be situated at the
staircases and lifts to help the elderly in moving up to the second level and
vice versa. This plan will take into account of both parties’ interest – space and
safety. This could be a better plan instead of just changing the entire layout
plan and messing up the original plan that Ling and Lei had planned for two
months.
What would you have done instead if you were in the
shoes of Ling and Lei or Gin to better mitigate the conflict so as not to hurt
the feelings of the other party?
