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A Summary Of Conflict Provoking Words With Suggested Replacements
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Written by Robert Bacal
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Review suggestions, and replacement options or strategies provided to help to you re-word phrases that may provoke conflict in your workplace.
- A Person-centred phrase such as "you don't know what you are talking about" can be replaced by staying focused on the issue, using questions, or offering help.
- Guilt Induction Techniques like "if you really cared about this team you would ..." are always inappropriate. If you feel a need to express concerns, do so in an assertive, more direct way.
- Defensiveness Causing Questions such as "why in the world would you say that?" can be replaced with "I'm not sure I agree. Could you explain how you think that 'x' might be better than 'y'?"
- Mistrust Statements like "Are you really going to keep your promise this time"? can be replaced with "It would be difficult for anyone to get this done, so if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know".
- Overstatements & Generalizations like "everytime we meet, we get caught up in trivialities" can be replaced with "sometimes we seem to get lost in our discussions. Perhaps we could try to stay on topic to solve this problem?".
This is an exerpt from Conflict Prevention In The Workplace, Table 1 in Section V. For more detailed help on workplace communication and conflict prevention, click here.
You can learn more about cooperative communication, by looking at a free preview of the Communicating Cooperative In The Workplace helpcard. |
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Communication Skills 
