Nonviolent communication and conflict in organizations

The communication process is, perhaps, the most important organizational process considering that the quality of the work, services and / or products of the organization depends on it. It impacts every aspect of organizational life because without communication none of the organization's activities’ are possible.

The absence or poor quality of communication generates more or fewer conflicts, explicit or implicit, direct or indirect, conflicts that we constantly try to avoid or resolve, so that their effects are minimized as much as possible.

Conflict resolution strategies emphasize the need for emotional control, active listening, defining and redefining issues, so that the parties involved in conflicts have as little suffering or loss as possible. Too rarely, if ever, do we emerge 100% "victorious" from a conflict.

In support of efficient communication and constructive conflict resolution comes the model of non-violent communication, which involves three primary methods of application:

1. Self-empathy - the connection with what happens in our inner forum, with our needs, with the feelings we have when we deal with certain pleasant or unpleasant situations;
2. Empathy - the ability to connect with the others, with their needs and emotions; Understanding the others’ needs, which can be one of listening, appreciating, or unloading the "too much", facilitates communication and also discovering the cause of a possible misunderstanding or inconsistency of opinion;
3. Expressing sincerily - which involves expressing the need when we ask for something or expressing the need when we express an emotion.

Communicating in a non-violent way in the middle of a conflict might seem, at first glance, paradoxical; but the way we express ourselves, to stay connected with the person we are in conflict with, leads to a decrease in the intensity of the emotions that accompany the disagreement, to a better clarification of the arguments of each party involved and, finally, to a healthy settlement of the conflict.