There is a well-known phrase about the diversity of human thoughts and values, perhaps everyone knows it: “How many people, so many opinions.” It's simple. People communicate, exchange thoughts, learn something new. But sometimes it happens that opposing opinions lead to conflicts. What is “conflict”? Obviously something bad, unconstructive. “Conflict” sounds menacing. “Conflict” sounds strict. Let’s turn to the dictionary: Conflict (lat. conflictus) is a collision of oppositely directed, incompatible tendencies in the consciousness of an individual, in interpersonal interactions or interpersonal relationships of individuals or groups of people, associated with acute negative emotional experiences. Any organizational changes, contradictory situations, business and personal relationships between people often give rise to conflict situations, which are subjectively accompanied by serious psychological experiences. (S.V. Berezin, K.S. Lisetskiy, M.E. Serebryakova. Dictionary of psychological terms.) Cumbersome, difficult, scientific. You can simplify the definition to this form: Conflict is a situation of interaction between opposing, contradictory parties. That’s what you need. This is what we will work with. I called the article “Conflict in Russian.” The name was given for a reason; it contains the key to understanding the essence of the conflict. But, let's take things in order. In specialized literature, in textbooks on conflict management, in books on “popular psychology,” or even in magazines (hello, cosmopolitan!), specialists do not really offer their options for resolving conflicts. Hundreds, thousands of solutions. But you know very well that sometimes it’s enough to look at a problem from the other side, and it miraculously transforms into not even a problem. Let's do the same with conflicts. Let's return to our definition: Conflict is a situation of interaction between opposing, contradictory parties. The key words are “opposing” and “contradictory.” Now we remember our mighty Russian language, its lessons at school, and compound words. Do you feel where we are going? Conflict is confrontation. Forgiving - standing. Moreover, “against” here means “on the contrary, right in front of someone (something).” And “standing” is just that: “standing”. This is not a movement. The conflicting parties maintain their positions. Now there is a “contradiction.” It's even positive! Against - speech. Speech is something without which our thinking would not take place. Thanks to speech as a means of communication, a person’s individual consciousness, not limited to personal experience, is generalized by the experience of other people, and to a much greater extent than observation and other processes of non-speech, direct cognition carried out through the senses: perception, attention, imagination, memory can allow. and thinking. In “contradiction” we develop, grow, enrich our personal experience. Thus, we can look at conflict not as a struggle, but as a situation of interaction between people, during which they do not move, since everyone defends their position, but in At the same time, they grow and practice their logical, analytical and imaginative thinking skills. You should not turn the clash of ideas and values ​​into a “war”; the conflict should bring you only positive results. If someone from your environment said something with which you are sharply wrong, think about it: after all, he has reasons for this. And finally, an interesting fact. When two rams meet on a mountain path and cannot separate, one of them lies down, allowing the other to pass over him. Both remain unharmed and continue on their way.