The conflict-handling style we will focus on in this session is “avoiding”. Avoiding is in the lower left corner of the grid and represents a low concern for both the self and the other party. Avoiding tries to smooth over or avoid conflict situations altogether. In other words, avoiders try to suppress their thoughts about the conflict and refrain from taking action to address their own or others’ interests.

There is a place for avoiding in well-functioning teams. For example, when there is a particularly difficult personality on the team, or when someone has an “oops” moment when they blow up but which is not a pattern of behaviour, these are great times to just ignore and move on and avoid making that into more of a “thing” than it was. We know that negative behaviour that can happen to people under stress – so up to a point, giving it a short-term pass might be productive.