At Each Other's Throats— But in a Nice Way February 06, 2008
By Margery Weinstein
It's usually a bad sign when pens and staplers fly over cubicle walls, but conflict isn't always negative.
In "Positive Conflict: Transform Opposition Into Innovation," author Darby Checketts, president of Mesa, AZ-based Cornerstone Professional Development, explains his belief that conflict is often an indicator that creative energy is about to be unleashed. The author teaches readers how to recognize creative energy inside conflict "to unleash the power of opposites"; how to help stakeholders move beyond special interests and personality clashes; how to increase listening effectiveness "by 50 percent...overnight;" and how your own conflicting ideas and viewpoints reveal new dimensions of yourself, including new opportunities that arise from all those personality facets.
"If we look past a win-lose mentality, we will see that the flip side of opposition is the opportunity for discovery and innovation," says Checketts. "In business today, we need leaders who can reconcile the seeming exclusivity of competing ideas and fuse them for new and better results."
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