HOW TO DO CONFLICT AT WORK
Conflict is the most important life skill that humans are the worst at.
Everywhere you look, conflict is increasing. From board rooms to dining rooms, politics to institutions, there are measurable increases in tension, stress, polarisation and disconnection – and most of us don’t know how to deal with it.
We all have words that we speak and words that we swallow, because most of us are fluent in small talk and almost illiterate at hard conversations. Our inability to constructively disagree with each other is coming at a historically dangerous time in human history.
Right now, three simmering trends are all reaching a boiling point, and their combined effect is leading us to a conflict crisis that’s going to be hard to wriggle out of: tensions are rising in the real world, our digital lives are stripping out the human friction that once kept us in check, and we’re losing many of the important skills we desperately need to meet this moment.
Communication is partly what’s got us into this mess, and it’s also the skill that’s going to get us out, because if we’re going to survive the twenty-first century we need to get better at conflict.
Location:
The Ethics Centre
Level 1, 161 Castlereagh St
Sydney, 2000
Sessions run for 120 mins and include morning tea.
Tim Duggan
Tim Duggan is an author, founder and optimist. He co-founded Junkee Media, and has written 3 books that sit at the intersection of purposeful modern success. He is now the Chair of the Digital Publishers Alliance now writes a weekly column on work for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. His latest book, Clear in Tension: How to get better at conflict, is out this September.
We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation - the custodians of the country on which we meet - and acknowledge their Elders, past and present.
The views and opinions expressed by the Festival participants are not necessarily the views of The Ethics Centre and our partners.