Good morning and welcome to the Increase Your Impact podcast. I'm Justin Sua, episode

2073, and today we are talking about conflict. And I want to share with you something that

might shift your approach to how you resolve conflict at home, at work, or in your respective team.

There's a guy named Morton Deuch.

He's a professor. He studied conflict many years ago.

And he found something really interesting.

And it's the difference between competition and cooperation

when dealing in these very difficult conflict conversations.

And he learned that when we approach conflict with a competitive mindset, it becomes all about

winning.

It's me versus you, and that mindset creates tension, distrust, and as you know, it usually makes things

worse for everybody. But he found that when we approach conflict with a cooperative mindset,

everything changes. People begin to trust each other. They communicate better. And instead of

focusing on who's right,

the focus becomes what's right.

And so the next time you're in a tough situation,

again, whether it's with a teammate, a coworker,

a family member, take a second and ask yourself,

am I trying to win this argument,

or am I trying to solve the problem?

And hopefully this shifts you from working together

instead of going head to head.

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