Conflict is inevitable, a fact of life.
But we have many choices about how to respond to the conflict. We can ignore the conflict, confront it head on, attack the person on the other side of the table, work to resolve it or wait it out, to name just a few. Most people would agree that working it out is the most appropriate response, but the mechanics of working toward resolution are often unknown to us. How we handle conflict determines whether it is productive or non-productive. Productive conflict encourages us to solve the problem at hand and maintain or improve our relationship with others in the process.