Conflict resolution is a skill that benefits professionals across all types of career paths. It is the process of ending a dispute and reaching an agreement that satisfies all parties involved. Interpersonal conflict can occur in virtually any setting, from office jobs to in-field work. Understanding how to deal with interpersonal conflict, and reaching an understanding are valuable practices that boost well-being and productivity. Since conflict is an essential part of being human, effective conflict resolution is not designed to avoid disagreements. Instead, conflict resolution skills are used to facilitate discussions, increase understanding and control emotional responses. Before introducing more details about a number of different methods used in the practice of conflict resolution, some of the most common cognitive errors that lead to unproductive or unresolved conflict are discussed first: ˙ Overconfidence Overconfidence prevents one or more conflicting parties from seeing the other's perspective, which is an issue that workplace conflict resolution aims to resolve. While overconfidence in a personal disagreement may simply cause embarrassment, this cognitive error can be even more detrimental when dealing with legal issues, particularly when you are ill-prepared for the argument at hand. ˙ Escalation Escalation tactics can prolong a dispute for longer than necessary, thus making an agreement even more difficult to reach. In a personal dispute, escalation may involve one party raising the stakes of the argument, or bringing in additional issues that exist outside of the situation at hand. ˙ Avoidance Avoidance is the practice of circumventing conflict. Examples of avoidance may include bottling up emotions, changing the subject when an issue is brought up, or physically leaving the situation altogether. ˙ Blaming Blaming refers to the tactic of one or more parties ridding their responsibility for a disagreement, thus placing all the faults on the other party. When blaming is used during a conflict, it can be difficult to get both parties to agree on how they played a role in the situation. When one party looks down upon the other from an inaccurate moral high ground, a real resolution is virtually impossible. ˙ Emotional volatility and insults Finally, one of the most common and destructive cognitive errors found in conflict resolution is emotional volatility, often expressed through insults. When one or more parties resort to inflicting emotional (or even physical damage) on the other party, the chances of reaching a calm and reasonable agreement decrease drastically. Not only does emotional volatility make for a hostile discussion environment, but insults can also lead the other party to withdraw entirely.