By this stage of the process you have politely and respectfully arranged a meeting, clarified a conflict, shared what did not work for you, and brainstormed solutions that might possibly work.  After choosing on solution to try, and deciding how each person will implement the plan, the next skill is to plan the next meeting.

Trust-building is one potential strength from the conflict resolution process, and being accountable to each other helps to create trust.  Beth and I chose Sunday afternoon, after lunch, as a time to meet.  This is the slowest time of our week, and a time where we are both reasonable fresh. By committing to meet each Sunday afternoon, we make sure that no other commitments interfere.  So, every week, we both know that we will spend at least 30 minutes discussing some issue.

The consistency of the meeting is the key aspect of skill #9.  Meet each week!  You can work on another conflict, hold each other accountable for the action of the past week and most of all spend focused time on your relationship.

I have found these Sunday afternoon meetings to be my most enjoyable time of the week.  I look forward with great anticipation to meeting and discussing my week with Beth.  Conflicts are resolved very quickly simply because we know a process to use, and we actually use the process!

I’ll share the final skill for conflict resolution in tomorrow’s post.

Please leave comments on this post or this series.