All categories/Workplace communication
Workplace communication · Level Advanced · Communication Conflict Collaboration
Peer conflict: separating issue from person
A disagreement over approach has turned personal.
Prompt
You lead with what the other side needs, then what you need. Emotion stays with you; facts and options go across the table.
Task: A disagreement over approach has turned personal.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- the exact disagreement
- each side's concern
- who decides
- does the relationship need repair
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- shared goal first
- say what I worry about, not that you are wrong
- turn it into a testable question
- no old grievances, no quoting third parties
[Process]
1. Read their situation and pressure first
2. Turn feeling into facts and impact
3. Offer a cheap way to respond
4. State the ask and the date
5. Check whether you decided for them
[Output]
One conclusion, facts, the ask, the date. Nothing long.
[Do not]
- Never embarrass anyone in public
- No 'you always' or 'you never'
- Do not send while angry
- Never handle a personal conflict in a group channelWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- the exact disagreement
- each side's concern
- who decides
- does the relationship need repair
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- shared goal first
- say what I worry about, not that you are wrong
- turn it into a testable question
- no old grievances, no quoting third parties