MANAGING PEOPLE & TEAMS
What’s The Temperature of the Conflict?
Knowing Whether a Conflict Is Hot or Cold Helps with Resolving It
You’ve seen — or been in — this kind of situations before: everyone’s either raising their voices, calling names and wagging fingers, or they’re being unresponsive, frozen and passive-aggressive.
Conflicts have a temperature and knowing the temperature is critical to how you’re going to resolve issues later. Depending on whether it’s warm or cold, understanding the nuances and differences between the two will help drive productivity in discussion and create more understanding between the conflicting parties.
If the conflict is highly emotional, then it’s most likely a hot conflict. Typically, there’s shouting, physical aggression, and incendiary language. It’s potentially explosive and dangerous.
When conflicts have unfettered growth in their temperature, it may explode, potentially burning relationships due to overt hostility and anger.
If emotions are suppressed intensely, it’s a cold conflict. Typically, you would see someone deflecting contact, turning away from the speaker. Parties are physically withdrawn and people are muttering under their breaths. Silence is usually the key here, but people can…
