I am currently writing a paper about conflict analyzing an episode that happened at work last week. It occurred to me that most of our conflicts in the workplace happen as a result of one person unwilling to hear the needs of others.

In this situation that I am writing about our director wanted something his way even though it was ineffective and hindered others from doing their job. He even made a statement along the lines of this is what I want and this is how it is going to be. There was even a very obvious alternative that would have satisfied everyone that he refused to hear about.

Immediately after this I began thinking about the conflicts over my 6 months at this job. Every one I can think of involves one person unwilling to change despite others looking to compromise. Maybe it is an old world classical management approach that leads to this. The excuses seem to be large: “you are only in your 20’s”, “why should I listen to someone who just has a MA instead of a PhD”, and others.

I think I am going to leave copies of The No Asshole Rule around the office.