While avoiding conflict is often perceived as an inappropriate way to manage our interpersonal conflicts, there are times walking away is the optimum approach. The idea of walking away presented here refers to not engaging in a dispute with another because we are not strongly vested in the subject or outcome. Or maybe, the issues are overly contentious and we just don’t want to challenge the relationship – which may be tenuous in any case. Such reasons and others often inform whether we walk towards or away from conflict.
It is suggested that the factor to consider in distinguishing avoiding and walking away has to do with whether we are actually avoiding the conflict – because we don’t feel confident and comfortable standing our ground. This is as opposed to walking away because it’s not important enough to us to assert ourselves, undermine the other person, or cause unnecessary conflict.
The Conflict Mastery Quest(ions) blog this week asks you to consider a dispute and whether it is avoiding or walking away you are doing – according to the description here.
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