One day Socrates got a fabulous idea, he had finally figured out how to make people embrace his ideas of reason and philosophy. Instead of being instructive and condescending, all you had to do was to show them the truth while being friendly and polite. However, something went badly wrong and he ended up facing the death penalty. During trial, one question continued to bother him, what was it exactly he had said that made them so mad.  

One can only imagine

Was it something he did, which he couldn't see

Was it something they thought, which they didn't say

Was it something they felt, but didn't show

Was it something they believed that he didn't know

All these questions and yet no answers to be found

Socrates' problem is quite typical when cooporating with others. It is not unusual that we say and do things which is perceived differently from what we intended. Although we may not know what other people think and feel, we do know that they believe we have done something wrong, when conflict arises. The question then becomes whether we acknowledge our mistakes or hold on to our rights. 

In the spirit of Socrates, I will not teach how to solve conflicts, but show how they arise during everyday social interaction in teams. The problem is not the conflict itself, but that we do not always know how we affect other people by what we say and do. If we knew, we could just act differently and no conflicts would arise, but how are we able to tell.