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Healthy and Unhealthy Conflict
April 28, 2003

"The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he is born."
�"W.R. Inge


HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY CONFLICT

Twenty years ago, Robert Townsend, writing in Further Up the Organization:  How to Stop Management from Stifling People and Strangling Productivity (New York:  Alfred A Knopf, 1984), observed that conflict within an organization is healthy. . .up to a point:
"A good manager doesn't try to eliminate conflict; he tries to keep it from wasting the energies of his people.  Conviction is a flame that must burn itself out�"in trying an idea or fighting for a chance to try it.  If bottled up inside, it will eat a person's heart away. If you're the boss and your people fight openly when they think you're wrong�"that's healthy.  If your people fight each other openly in your presence for what they believe in�"that's healthy.  But keep all the conflict eyeball to eyeball."



For ideas on dealing with conflict in early childhood settings, go to the Exchange Article Archives at https://secure.ccie.com/catalog/cciecatalog.php?cPath=50  and type in the keyword "conflict" in the search tool.

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