Conflict happens, deal with it!
- Talk early and often, before conflict gets out of hand.
- Deal with conflicts early. (Redundant? Nope, its that important.)
- Figure out household agreements that are easy to begin this process.
- Encourage confrontation of problems.
- If two people aren’t talking: they either need to start talking or one or both need to leave the coop. It is the other housemates’ responsibility to hold the two people accountable to have them resolve their issue or leave.
- When two members of a house are antagonistic towards each other it is bad for them AND everyone else as it keeps everyone tense and on their toes!
- When conflict between people exist it often prevents the house from discussing and moving forward with other household business.
- Houses work well in the absence of conflict where housemates like and respect each other.
- House meeting time set aside for problem solving conflict.
- When meeting each person should be able to talk uninterrupted and the rest listen.
- Permit and be ok with others having strong emotions.
- When two people are having an issue a good idea is to and meet outside the house for a set amount of time to talk one-on-one.
- A good idea is for the two people in conflict to talk about something else first, which helps humanize them.
- It is important to accept others’ preferences and needs, even if you can’t understand them.
- “Change is a constant part of the coop experience inevitably involving conflict.” -freshmen year high school social studies teacher with “human” replaced with “coop.”
- “Feelings are really important. There are no facts, there are only feelings.” -probably paraphrased from something I read sometime.