ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests one of the most difficult things to deal with in the workplace is conflict, which include seeing it as a normal part of everyday life. An area of importance, which forms the backdrop to any conflict, is organisational culture. In order to work well with conflict as a consultant, it is important that people feel safe to address issues and that they are open to listening to and being influenced by others. To make the context safe, the consultant can do a number of things. Returning to the work with conflict, David Campbell and Marion Groenbaek used positioning theory to help people to move from being positioned against each other to seeing conflict as a way of seeking deeper understanding. A distinction is made between understanding, which they are aiming for, and agreement, which is different and not part of the objective.
