How to Fight Fair at Work

We want to feel better about our choices and to be more at peace with our lives. Our relationships inspire us or can hold us back, depending on where we’re at mentally and physically.

So, we thought it might be helpful to remind our community that conflict isn’t a bad word, more so an opportunity to open our hearts and actively listen to each other. Here are some insightful article and book recommendations, for you to improve how you relate in your professional life.

1. Forbe’s article about conflict in the workplace, “Why We Need Conflict At Work And How To Fight Fair”, is a great place to start with 3 tips to help you strategize with your team and leadership to address active situations.

2. When personal and professional priorities clash, here is Harvard Business Review’s article, “Avoiding Conflict Will Only Hurt Your Family Business”. It covers concepts like fake harmony along with tools to address and diffuse tensions.

3. Christopher Littlefield, a workplace culture contributor for Forbes Magazine, published a helpful book review piece “Workplace Dynamics Expert Explains How To Work With Difficult People”. It’s on Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) by Amy E. Gallo (she’s also written The HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict). You can listen to the article (7 min) or you can skim the key points around why it matters, archetypes that are commonly found at work, and principles for getting along with just about everyone.

Books to further explore:

• TeamBuilding.com’s 13 Best Conflict Resolution Books to Read for Work in 2023 article highlights a useful range of approaches and philosophies. The author lays out ideal choices for different levels of management and a few different scenarios (such as workplace conflict and negotiation styles).

• The Elevated Communicator: How to Master Your Style and Strengthen Well-Being at Work by Maryanne O'Brien. Simon & Schuster, 2021.

• Working with Difficult People, Second Revised Edition: Handling the Ten Types of Problem People Without Losing Your Mind by Amy Cooper Hakim & Muriel Solomon. TarcherPerigree, 2016.

• How to Fight by Thich Nhat Hanh. Parallax Press, 2017.

• Getting to Zero: How to Work Through Conflict in Your High-Stakes Relationships by Jayson Gaddis. Hachette Go, 2022.

• Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear by Dr. Frank Luntz. Hachette Books, 2008.

• Messages: The Communication Book by Matthew McKay, Martha Davis, and Patrick Fanning. New Harbinger Publications, 1995.