Optimized Conflict – Harnessing the Power of Conflict
by Dave Ramsey

For Aptimise, conflict is often present in the projects we are involved in. We have found it vital to the creation and enhancement of competitive advantage. As an energy source for purpose, passion, and the sharing of power, it is integral to increased productivity which in turn is a key ingredient of competitive advantage.However, the “win/lose” concept of conflict forged by an aggressive nature, cultural socialization or extremism in the pursuit of Vince Lombardi’s ideal of “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” creates extremely difficult to repair damage. Additionally, unresolved emotional hurt or humiliation derived from this “dominant or defeated” ideology will, over the long term, completely destroy an otherwise successful organization.As an alternative to this damaging ideology, Aptimise advocates the use of turning conflict into a creative intervention. To accomplish this, it is necessary to not only have understanding of timing, but also to have awareness of methods to productively “strike when the ego is hot!” Through the use of a dynamic, intrapersonal, but yet interpersonal series of steps Aptimise harnesses the energy found in conflict to help our clients build competitive advantage instead of destroying relationships. Through this unique combination of tools and techniques interactions become less turbulent, more productive, and in fact result in stronger more invigorating relationships.In order to make conflict a positive and productive factor it is necessary for the organization, or at the very least, the main individuals involved to complete some assessment of both themselves and the climate around them. While the skilled individual can do this within a couple of minutes, it takes both knowledge and practice.For Aptimise, the starting point is learning how to assess your individual conflict resolution style and understand other techniques that can be used effectively. Equal in importance to knowledge of the conflict resolution techniques is practice using the techniques. Intertwined within the learning of conflict resolution techniques is becoming aware of how to identify personality styles and behaviors that cause conflict. This awareness begins in knowing your behavioral preferences and how they affect others behavior toward you.Tying all this together is the need for coaching in using the knowledge gained from the assessment activities taught. Without the coaching from a trained third party, use of the knowledge gained from the above assessments is a daunting and long term task.

Aptimise experts have created a combination of the training involved in learning the assessment skills and the coaching required for rapid application of Optimized Conflict. A brief outline follows: