Resolving Interpersonal Conflict
Friday, August 29, 2008
11:02 PM
Conflicts can happen anytime, anywhere and through any communication channels.
I had a very long argument over MSN with a friend, who is studying in Australia now, a while ago. Both of us are in the same choir and on that particular day, we were discussing about issues regarding our choir.
We had very different perspectives on the different issues and we were too affected by our emotions. On a simple topic like whether to have an official email for our choir, we had very different opinions and cannot agree with each other. He believed that having email is “RETARDED” because he thinks that friends in our choir do not check their emails and what more the official email? Moreover, he believed that someone can just take on the responsibility to email everyone about updates or any potential organizations for performances. However, I believed that having an official email will enhance our professionalism. Having an official email also means that we have a proper space to store important emails.
Besides that issue, we also argued about stress and leadership. He was the leader of the choir but he stepped down after a few months. However, he still felt much stressed after that because he thinks that he still is the leader of the choir. I argued that he felt stressed because he takes on too much unnecessary responsibility especially when he sees himself as the “leader” of the choir. I told him that he is taking this label too seriously but he insisted that he did not want to be the leader but is the situation which forced him to take up the role and he emphasized that I will not understand how he feels because he assumed that I was never a leader before.
We had diverging opinions on all the issues we talked about. Most of the conversation was typed in capital letters which showed that both of us were angry and agitated at that point of time. His use of words such as retarded also made the situation worst.
In order to work effectively together in the choir, we need to resolve the conflict between us, but how can we reach a mutual understanding or agree with each other?
p.s. To this friend of mine, if you ever saw this post, I really did not hold any grudge against you but this is just for my module :)
-edit on 3rd September
Why is Effective Communication Important?
Saturday, August 23, 2008
1:40 AM
For me, the basis of effective communications is to maintain and construct a more extensive and improved social network. Effective communications is the indispensable way to clearly convey a message, regardless whether it is formal or informal. Hence, communicating effectively, which includes active listening, plays an important in putting a message across resourcefully which develops good social network and enhance the interactions between these social networks.
To me, not having effective communication will cause misunderstandings and will definitely strain my relationships with my family, friends and schoolmates. For example, having a biased opinion or being too emotional often results in misunderstandings. When communication becomes ineffective and relationships weaken, our informal social circle will be affected most significantly, as we habitually cannot hold back our emotions towards our family and friends. Without effective communication skills, I will not be able to maintain good relationships with my family and friends.
We are usually more cautious about the things we say or do when we interact with our formal social network; hence we are less affected by our emotions. However, developing effective communication skills is nevertheless important. In school, communicating effectively helps me to express myself clearly and also understand others better. Thus, developing effective communication skills is important as it aids us in establishing good relationship with everyone, which will develop our social network.
To build an extensive social network, we must make use of different channels of communication. With the advance in technology, new modes of communication emerged, such as Facebook, which are more appealing to most people, especially those who do not have ample time to have face-to-face communication with their social networks. With these new communication channels, I am also able to communicate with family or friends who are overseas.
-edited on 27 Aug
