Theme 1 - Leadership

Dealing with conflict

Conflict is part of life. It can occur between individuals, families, groups and communities. It can occur in the community group that you are leading. Conflict arises when differences occur between individuals, within the groups, and between group members and interests outside the group. Managing conflict is essential to the development of effective relationships and to the successful completion of your particular project.

Many conflict situations do not lend themselves to immediate 'resolution'. The important set of skills around dealing with conflict, are those that enable us to manage not always resolve conflict.

There are various strategies for handling conflict. The first step in managing conflict is understanding some of its common causes. With this understanding it is then possible to look at ways of managing conflict and developing useful skills. The University of Nebraska 4-H website provides many useful resources relating to conflict, including the following which can be accessed from this link:

• Causes of Conflict
• Ways of Managing Conflict
• Skills in Conflict Management
• Collaborative Conflict Management

You may wish to visit our section on managing community conflict.