Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Strategy 6

On page 201 it states, "It is precisely 'the person is the problem' as a way of thinking that is responsible for producing malicious, revengeful, inhuman, murderous, and genocidal solutions to our conflicts, all of which are rationalized by labeling the problem as personal, inborn, and unchangeable."

A bit earlier, the book states that it is this viewpoint that shifts "our attention away from what the other person did to who they are." This is the root of a lot of conflict in the workplace. Someone makes a tough decision and someone else gets hurt from it. They then begin to blame the person, not the decision and this can lead to a giant intracompany conflict.  I will use this knowledge as a reminder to myself to not only look at things in context, but also to separate the issue from the person.

1 comment:

  1. You are so right about that being the source of a lot of conflict.

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