Written by My Collaborative Team member, Keith Grossman, Esq.

When we are in preschool, we are all taught to share with others. In fact, I remember when my kids were children in preschool, they sang a little song with a line it: “It’s mine, but you can have some”.

That’s a nice thought, and we are all taught that early on in life. Somewhere along the way, however, we start to move away from that idea. We begin to embrace the idea of escalating conflict when things happen that we don’t like or don’t agree with.

A change in thinking can resolve a conflict.

The truth is that we’re not going to agree with what other people believe and what other people do all the time; however, as a society and within our workplaces, within our religious communities, within our friendships, we need to find ways to de-escalate conflict and to get along. Changing the shift in your thinking to commit to effectively working through conflict is called a Paradigm Shift. To resolve a conflict, you have to shift your thinking to move away from needing to be right and getting your way to considering other people’s wants and needs.