With summer just around the corner, you may be feeling sad or even anxious. You probably planned to send your child to a summer camp, where they could socialize, continue to learn, and avoid summer learning loss. But with coronavirus, lockdown, quarantine, and things getting cancelled right and left, you may be wondering – now what?
The great news is, they can still go to a summer camp virtually, and get to socialize with peers from all over the world! Moreover, if it’s a good fit, they may even progress further and become a class instructor!
Nobel Explorers – What It Is and How It Works
Nobel Explorers is an online STEM camp, whose innovative classes have been available for a number of years. But, in this unprecedented situation, we felt the need to step up and support our communities. And so, during this time, our classes are being offered free for everyone. We firmly believe everyone deserves a free education and an opportunity to learn both STEM and soft skills.
That’s how we’re helping students around the world thrive. Our classes were created by STEM experts as well as our coaches, who understand the importance of teamwork, critical thinking, and good feedback. Over the course of just one week, these classes provide our Explorers with valuable knowledge necessary for real jobs and success in the real world.
And what better way to prepare them for it all than by letting them experience other cultures and learn about them?
Our Explorers join classes from all over the world, and in doing so, they bring their unique backgrounds and experiences along with them. Helping them all understand these differences – anything from time zones to different ways we approach conversation – allows kids to be more sensitive towards those who aren’t from their own culture. By learning very early on to understand their own cultural background and become knowledgeable about others’, our Explorers gain valuable life skills, become kinder and more empathetic, and prepare themselves for future workplace challenges.
And the mere process of interacting with other kids makes the whole experience more interesting, and teaches them about cooperation and other important people skills. It’s a win-win-win… win situation! Just take a look at the highlights from one of our latest EXPO events:
Coaching & Tutoring
Nobel Coaching & Tutoring has been around for even longer, but for much the same purpose: to provide education based on understanding each and every student’s unique personality, perspective, and interests in order to provide them with assets they can use in the real world. At Nobel Coaching & Tutoring, we believe that learning to understand those obstacles outside of school (such as shyness, anxiety, procrastination…) which prevent kids from reaching their full potential, goes hand in hand with learning any specific subject.
Nobel Explorers, Nobel Coaching & Tutoring… All combine into one mission: helping children progress by providing them with the tools they need to succeed right now and later on in life as well. We’re immensely proud to be providing kids with these means to succeed, and we’ll continue supporting students around the globe, as well as their parents, on this exciting journey.
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/surface-KxCAa7wpzu0-unsplash-scaled.jpg18912560Jelenahttps://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngJelena2020-06-11 02:43:562020-06-11 03:02:00Helping Students Succeed: The Nobel Approach
How often have you been talking to someone who just nods back, saying “Uh-huh, ok,” whereas to you it appears as if they may not have really understood your point?
When we work in a team it is crucial that everybody in the team operates with the same information and understands each other. Communicating clearly is something that sounds easy, but it can actually be tricky to put into practice. How can we make sure we communicate clearly? This gets even more important as the problems we solve grow in their complexity.
The solution is easy. Whenever someone is explaining a complex topic, we should stop them every time we don’t understand in order to double-check if our understanding is correct. This can be done simply by asking for further clarification or trying to summarize what was just said but in your own words. If you can’t do that, you can always ask for clarification.
Our Explorers are supported to practice the skill of asking clarifying questions on a daily basis during our Mini Project.
This can look as simple as “Can you please clarify your last point?”, or “I’m not sure I’m following now. Can you please explain that last point one more time?”. You can take it to the next level by summarizing main points in your own words, practicing real comprehension rather than recognition.
Asking questions like that will earn you your #AskClarifyingQuestions badge and will help your team progress faster.
We encourage you to practice this skill in your daily lives. Reach out if you have any questions and we will make sure to clarify them for you! If you need any clarification about your Explorer’s journey and growth, book a free session with me, Daria.
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Clarifying-Questions.png6001200Daria Phttps://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngDaria P2020-02-24 18:00:182020-03-25 20:47:27The Nobel Explorers Ask Clarifying Questions
Think back to a time when your colleague or classmate has done something you didn’t like. Did you struggle with how to handle it? Is there a way to tell them you disagree without hurting their feelings? The alternative is to say nothing, but potentially risking the future of the whole project.
Providing your teammates with actionable and constructive feedback is a skill we hold very high in our soft skills training for all Explorers. This means you learn how to provide feedback that is results-oriented and offers concrete suggestions on what can be done to improve the project.
Let’s illustrate this. Instead of saying “I don’t like the colors on our website,” – which can be perceived as judgmental and less useful for the feedback recipient – you could try saying “I think we have done a great job organizing parts of our website so far. One thing I would change is the color of the background. That yellow color makes it hard for me to look at the website for a long time. How about we change it to a darker shade of blue? It would be more comfortable to look at, and it matches our topic of ocean life better.”
Our Nobel Explorers have a chance to start practicing this skill as early as the mini project or intro class, and as they go on we dedicate more and more attention to this complex but important skill.
We believe that we all grow through real, constructive feedback, that comes from a good place. Our program is organized in a way that supports and promotes collaboration, so providing feedback is inevitable and valuable!
Asking and providing feedback is something you can practice as well! Leave a review on Facebook, Google and let us know what you enjoyed and what you like to see more of! Book a session with me, Daria, for personalized feedback on your Explorer’s improvement and growth journey!
Sparking our inherent creative potential is essential for solving complex work and life-related problems that we encounter on an everyday basis. Unfortunately, the older we get, the less inclined we are to employ our creativity.
The issue gets even more complicated when we want to engage a whole team in this creative process. How do we make sure we have everybody’s ideas down? How do we make sure that there is one result out of this process that everybody feels passionate about? But most importantly, how do we make it a team process? How can we use everybody’s creativity to solve a complex issue and build strong relationships within a team instead of having everybody push for their version of the solution? (Does this sound familiar?)
We address this and more with our Nobel Explorers as part of our soft skills training in order to make sure they’re equipped to put their creativity into good practice and use it to answer complex questions.
Creativity a skill utilized in one of the Explorers’ very first tasks – deciding the topic of their website – which requires brainstorming as a team. To earn this badge, Explorers must engage in a brainstorming activity, make sure to add as many ideas as they can, build off of each other’s ideas whilst being respectful of the ideas of others.
Solving any complex question becomes easier and more fun when we become more comfortable utilizing creativity and learning how to leverage it within a team. That’s why our Explorers learn about and earn this badge in the early part of the program.
Since January is the official Get Organized Month, we’ve decided to dedicate an article to organization skills in kids. You’ll learn what organization skills are, how to recognize when children struggle with them, and how to help them overcome these issues.
What Are Organization Skills?
The type of skills that, simply put, help kids stay organized in their everyday activities. They help kids make plans, use all the resources available to them, and allocate their time effectively. These skills rely on executive function, which is responsible for, among other things, impulse control. It enables kids to focus on what’s important right now, successfully ignore distractions around them, and plan out what needs to be done.
But what happens if they lack some of these skills?
Recognizing the Lack of Organization Skills
If your child is struggling to get organized, you may notice the following:
Difficulty Setting Priorities & Making Schedules
They may be doing things ad hoc, and experiencing certain consequences because of it. For example, they may not be planning their homework ahead, which leads to it piling up and inevitably causing them trouble. This can also apply to chores, especially with younger kids.
You may have noticed that they always do it at the last moment, and it’s not because they forget – it’s simply because they think that the order in which they do things doesn’t matter as long as it’s all being done.
“I’ll go to Mark’s first, then I’ll come back home and finish that song I’ve been learning to play on the guitar, and I’ll do my homework in the evening.”
In their head, as long as it’s planned out, priorities don’t matter – it will all be done after all, won’t it? But after they come home from Mark’s and finish playing for an hour and a half, they may be too tired to do their literature assignment, so they may just finish those three math questions and go to bed. They’ll do it tomorrow, but not before going to the pool with their friends!
Poor Time-Management Skills
“My kid does plan everything in advance, schedule and all – but they still can’t seem to finish stuff on time!”
In that case, planning and prioritizing is probably not the issue, but their perception of time is. If they can sit down and decide on what their priorities are, that’s amazing – but without proper time management, it will all remain pretty theoretical.
What usually happens is that they believe they have more time to do certain things than they actually do.
“I’m great at history, so I’ll learn these 10 pages in half an hour!”
“Cleaning up my room? Let’s put that at 5:15 p.m., ‘cause I gotta leave at 5:30 for my soccer practice. That’s plenty of time to finish it!” “I’ll set my alarm for 7:30 a.m. – 10 minutes is plenty of time to get up, get dressed, have breakfast and leave for school!”
If this is the way your kid’s thinking when they sit down to plan their activities, chances are they’ll end up hurrying through them and skipping a bunch because they simply can’t fit them all in – and they’ll end up stressed out and disappointed as a result.
And not to mention that things like video games and YouTube videos tend to find their way in there somewhere. After all, they still have plenty of time to finish their assignments after this one game, right?
Not Knowing Where to Start & What Resources to Use
Your child may be great at making schedules, and as a bonus, they know how much time each of those things is going to take, which is awesome! But they may be struggling with the last step, and feeling confused and even anxious every time they have to actually start working on something.
“Where do I start?” “What do I need for this? Where do I find it all?” “Which of these goes first?” “Should I ask someone for help? Should I do it by myself?”
Having all these thoughts flood them as they sit down at their desk to write that assignment, or as they start cleaning their room can be so blocking. To you, it may seem like a simple enough thing – your assignment says “The Discovery of America”, so you start with which parts of the world were already known, who Christopher Columbus was, how he came to America, and what that discovery meant (once they figured out it was not, in fact, India!) You get your class notes, add to it from the internet, and voila, you’re done!
But to someone who struggles to identify the appropriate order of things as well as their possible resources, this entire experience is overwhelming, and it’s no wonder they start getting nervous at the very thought of an assignment.
The good news is, there are ways to help them overcome each of these stumbling blocks. Here’s how.
Don’t Do Everything for Them
This may seem counterintuitive. “If they’re struggling with it, shouldn’t I help them?” Absolutely! But unless they do things on their own, they’ll never learn to organize themselves in the right way, which may affect their future. If you’re always reminding them about their homework now, what happens once they get a job? You can’t possibly know all of the responsibilities they’ll have at any moment then, and without you to remind them, chances are they won’t be very successful at it.
Instead, help them make a huge calendar to put above their desk. You can aid them in the beginning so they don’t forget to enter all their assignments onto it (after some time, they’ll get the hang of it on their own). You can also color code it for priorities – red if it’s very urgent, yellow if it’s not that urgent, but should be done soon, and green if there’s plenty of time left.
This will help them better understand what needs to be done ASAP, before they’ve gone off to the pool or started learning how to play Stairway to Heaven beginning to end!
Time-Management Diary
Here’s what to do if your kid’s greatest struggle isn’t setting priorities, but understanding how much time each of those tasks will take.
Have them track all their activities for a week or two, writing down how much time each takes. Once that’s done, you can sit down with them and discuss the findings. Chances are, they’ll realize that doing five math problems and writing a 15-page assignment do not each take “like, half an hour”. For each new activity they introduce, they should track it first so they’ll be better able to plan it all out next time they need to do it!
Bonus Advice
Make sure they’re not sacrificing their sleepnow that they know how much time their daily activities take! Just because an assignment will take two hours instead of half an hour doesn’t mean their sleep should now last seven hours instead of eight and a half. You can share your own diary with your daily tasks to show them that it’s possible to do it all and lead a healthy lifestyle at the same time!
One of the must-do’s of good time management is separating a single task into a couple of mini tasks. This serves two purposes. For one, it allows them to rest – otherwise, their focus could soon start to waiver, and they’d spend even more time trying to get it back. The second thing is, “all I need to do is spend half an hour Monday-Thursday on it” sounds much easier than “I have to sit and write for two hours on Thursday”, right? This helps them avoid anxiety and even get motivated to finish it as soon as possible!
And another thing – don’t forget to set firm deadlines! “Sometime next week” may lead them to finish it on Sunday evening, but “Done by Friday at 5:00 p.m.” is a whole different story that instills in them a sense of responsibility.
Learning by Example
Helping them identify their resources and the correct order of things may be the trickiest part, but it can still be done! This will work best if they’re learning from someone who’s successfully done similar things in the past. For example, if they have a friend who’s great at it, instead of just bluntly asking them what they should do (because there’s no learning there), they can simply ask to see an assignment and ask them to explain how they did it.
The questions to ask may be:
“What did you do first?” “Where did you do your research?” “Do you write it all at once, or do you have an outline first?” “How do you know when you’ve finished the assignment?”
They should write the answers down and have them serve as a reminder. And after they’ve consulted this three, five, or twelve times, there’ll come a time when they realize – “Wow, I’ve just finished this assignment without even glancing at my reminder!”
Why should you choose a Nobel Explorers’ internship? No one could answer this question better than our interns themselves. That’s why we interviewed Michael, one of our interns, and here’s why he’d recommend this internship to his friends.
Flexibility and comfort
When you think about online internship, the most obvious first benefit is that you can work from the comfort of your home. This lets you save money for gas and any time that you’d spend on travelling. Also, you have complete control over your working environment.
Plus, with Nobel Explorers, there’s a flexible schedule, so you can organize your time and work however you want to. A flexible schedule means that you don’t miss out on anything important to you, whether it’s someone’s birthday or a basketball game you’re planning to watch.
Developing new skills
The goal of a Nobel Explorers’ internship is to teach interns the skills that lay the foundation for their careers.
On one side, they learn hard skills – STEM knowledge. These include web design, web coding, etc. On the other, they gain soft skills – skills that are highly sought-after by employers but are not job-specific. Some of these are teamwork, time management, problem-solving, and communication. Hard and soft skills go hand in hand and make NE interns future-ready!
Learning hard skills
You wonder why learning hard skills is emphasized? Friends of our interns didn’t have internships where they learned actual skills. They were doing a lot of manual work. As Michael said, the job of one of his friends was only to turn the computers on and off all day. Sounds really boring, right? And we’re pretty sure his friend didn’t learn much.
Our internships are designed for our interns to work by themselves – with the help of our hard-skills experts, of course. This way, Michael had a chance to be programming by himself although he’d never had training on javascript, node js, or any other programming language he was using. And today, Michael finds coding fun!
It’s like a puzzle, try to figure out the most efficient way to build something using the least amount of code.”
Website our interns made
The hard skills Nobel Interns Generation I learned during their online internship are website design and website coding. As time moved on, they became pretty comfortable, started to be more efficient, and ended up with an awesome website we couldn’t be more proud of!
Besides these hard skills, they learned a lot more! Michael didn’t expect this at all! He thought that he’d just be coding, but he also learned soft skills. The two he found the most valuable are communication and teamwork skills.
Communication skills
Miscommunication can lead to frustration, missing meetings, as well as a less productive team, so communicating effectively is a vital skill to master. NE interns become good listeners and accomplished at explaining and clarifying their thoughts and ideas. The end result is the team accomplishes more work together than if they’d all worked alone.
Real Teamwork
In school, students learn teamwork but is it really teamwork? Michael said that whenever he had a group project he kind of hated it because his grades depended on how his team members behaved. So we asked him how the teamwork at Nobel Explorers differs from the teamwork in school.
I’ve never thought about teamwork the way Nobel thinks about it. I’ve never thought it was a positive thing.”
During his internship, Michael learned the importance of being able to work with other people. He found that part of working together is not just working with the perfect partner but working with people who aren’t perfect and learning how to deal with them. It’s important to learn how to talk to your teammates to make you all feel more comfortable and, of course, get a good result at the end.
Are soft skills soft?
When Michael was introduced to the term soft skills, he felt that designation didn’t really do justice to the value of these skills. It implies they’re not as important as hard skills, and therefore get little respect.
Hard skills make you qualified for the job, but soft skills are what helps you write your resume, interview to get that job, and help you stand out.
We agreed that the term “soft skills” underplays their importance in the modern world. So we’re weighing in on the term – what do you think about teamwork skills? Maybe people skills? Or social skills?
Professional development
At Nobel Explorers, you have an opportunity to be part of a real software development team. Not many high-school students have this kind of experience. A lot of people have this chance only when they get their first job. Having this kind of experience can help you adjust to the work environment faster, get better insight into the workplace, and boost your confidence at work.
A real software development team is also an international team. Working within an international team means a lot when it comes to preparation for the future of work, as it seems more and more companies will be looking into remote work and international teams.
Skills transfer
Skills you learn at Nobel aren’t necessarily for work only– they can be very useful in your private life too. It’s about how you communicate with other people, and that’s definitely important in every relationship we have. You learn how to improve your work when things don’t go well. Also, you learn how to plan your time and how to effectively split tasks up, and that’s the best way to avoid procrastination.
Which of these skills do you think is the most important? Leave us a comment!
If you like what you’ve read, we only have one more thing to say to you: We can’t wait to meet you!
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/20190810_091924-scaled.jpg19202560Jelena N.https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngJelena N.2019-11-17 15:48:392020-02-18 20:37:59Benefits of Nobel Explorers’ Online Internship
Communication with others is an essential part of every aspect of our entire life experience – our development, our personal lives, and in education. That’s why it’s important to teach children from an early age to communicate well, and for all of us to practice communicating with each other more effectively.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the ways in which the communication process – personal and professional – can affect our learning and teaching processes. Teaching is, at its core, communication, so building good soft skills is vital to the transfer of knowledge. Learning, on the other hand, involves listening and accepting information well.
What is communication?
In order to understand how to attain the most effective communication in the learning and teaching process, we’ll first explore the meaning of communication itself. We’ll do so using the simplified model and terms of Claude Shannon [1].
In the picture, we see a few components. The first one is the Sender, aka the information source – the person sending the message. If you’re the one teaching, you are the one sending the message and this is you.
The second one is the Channel. This is the physical system that is sending the signal or the message. What are you using to send the information? A picture or a film? A presentation? Are you talking and using body language? These mediums of communication are your channel, and you should use the best ones possible to transfer the information.
The Destinationis the person receiving the message – student, child, partner. That is the one being taught (student) or the one in the process of learning. It is in the mutual interest of everyone involved in the process to get the best message possible.
Noise is the element which interferes with the communication, be it on the physical or psychological level. Noise impacts the message – changing it or erasing it. If you’re using video for teaching, maybe the quality isn’t the best, so the student’s learning process has been negatively impacted.
Maybe the student is from a different background and will translate the message into something different than the Sender intended. For example, in the field of STEM studies, stereotypes are the noise which distracts women from becoming involved in STEM careers.
Finally, Feedback is the process the communicators use to make sure the messages sent and received are as close in meaning to each other as is possible.
What communication means in the learning process
Whether you’re a teacher, an educator, or a parent helping your child with homework, your most important communication skill is the manner in which you present the material. For the child to understand and process a topic, it needs to be presented in an orderly fashion at a moderate pace. This gives the child time to hear and comprehend the material as it’s presented.
It’s important to remember is that communication is not only talking. Optimal communication always uses both verbal and visual communication tools. We don’t only mean using pictures and videos in class – although, this is always a good way to get the message across – but also non-verbal communication.
Your body language is a language in itself. The more dynamic it is, the better the effect. It’s been proven that educators who walk around and talk, and not just sit and read from the text, get better feedback from students. The best option is to combine dynamic, non-verbal presentation with expressive speech patterns, using repetition and emphasis in one’s voice to make important concepts stand out.
The key is finding the best possible way to communicate the message you want to get across. You’ll know if you’re doing a good job by getting feedback – it can be from the child themselves so the sender is confident they understood the message, or it can be from someone from outside, whom you asked to monitor your presentation and give you tips [2].
Effective communication in the learning environment
In order to have the message transmitted in the way you intended, you have to learn the most effective method of communication. This is a skill that can be learned and improved upon over time, and there are a few steps you can follow in order to practice and master it. In the teaching process, it’s incredibly important to send the message in the most effective and accurate way possible.
So, what counts as effective communication in the learning environment? No matter if it’s educator-student communication or communication between two students working on a project, what is needed for effective communication is the same [4]:
Listening to others – In order for a two-way conversation to happen, one party must listen to what others have to say, processing information and understanding it
Maintaining eye contact with speakers – Eye contact not only helps to keep focus and heighten the feeling of personal conversation, but is vital for keeping the communication flow going.
Seeking opinions from others – Getting feedback is one of the best ways to see if the information has really been understood in the best way possible. This is especially important if you want to see if your partner, student, or child understands the message as clearly as you intend it.
Accepting ideas from others – This is vital, particularly if you’re working in a group – your partner’s ideas are as important as yours. Even educators need to remember this. Your student has ideas they can offer on how to make the learning process better. Be sure to listen to them and, if their idea is a good one, accept it.
Clear explanations– Things should be explained in an understandable manner in every form of communication involved in the learning process.
Why is mindful communication so important?
As teaching is basically communication, it’s important to incorporate all aspects of the communication process (seen on the scheme above) in an environment with as little distracting noise as possible. Also, the teaching/communication process will work best when you have good general communication rapport with a child or student.
For this to happen, the child must know you’re taking them seriously and that they can also tell you what they think and need. Power dynamics should be as felt as little as possible, so the communication can be open and frank. This also helps in getting good feedback from a child, in case the message isn’t getting across well.
In her Ted Talk, Kris Prochaska explains how to have good communication with children and why it’s important. She relates her real-life experience about how giving mindless answers to children gets no results, and doesn’t benefit anyone. On the contrary, when she explained reasonably to her child the options of when to do their homework – now, or at recess with the teacher – the child herself made the decision to do the homework. In this simple example, Prochaska shows how having a good, reasonable conversation with a child can benefit their school performance [5].
Child-child communication and gains for the learning process
Children communicating among themselves is very important for development.
Your communication as an educator is not the only communication process that the child can benefit from while learning. It’s been shown that children communicating with other children can enhance their success in school.
Children’s earliest communication is usually developed within the family. These first contacts become the model for the later ones they’ll pick up during their school days. It has been noted that during the preschool period, a child becomes increasingly focused on interaction with other children, learning what they say and do with more interest.
This is why, in this phase of development, children acquire their first ‘social status’ – learning how to adapt and integrate into a group. If a child has a communication problem during this stage, it’s likely they will develop an adaptation problem later on, which, naturally, will affect their personal life, as well as their education [3].
A child who is not at ease in their environment or with their friends will have a hard time focusing in school. Therefore, they will achieve less than desirable results. So, as you communicate with children, remember it’s also important for them to learn to communicate with each other as well. You might even need to give them some guidance in this area.
Developing critical thinking
Remember that when teaching a child, it is not only important to get the message across. It’s important to be there for the child generally, and help them develop many crucial life skills. That’s why understanding that collaborative learning improves critical thinking is so important [6].
Helping a child or a student develop critical thinking is one of the most useful things you can do for them. This way children can develop the skills necessary to judge on their own. They will judge about what is important, what is right or wrong, what is adequate, etc. This will help in their personal lives to judge what’s best for them and for their environment. It’s also a crucial skill to master so as to get the best out of their education. A child who can think critically can discern the important components of a text to learn, decide the best way to learn it, and accurately reproduce the knowledge they’ve gained. This is important in studying for a test, as well as later for a job or in life.
[1] https://www.businesstopia.net/communication/shannon-and-weaver-model-communication
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1705977/
[3] Nærland, T. and Martinsen, H. 2011, Child–child interactions and positive social focus among preschool children. Early Child Development and Care, 181 (3): 361-370,
[4] Hurley, E. A, Allen, B. A. and Boykin, A. W. 2009. Culture and the Interaction of Student Ethnicity with Reward Structure in Group Learning. Cognition and Instruction. 27 (2): 121-146.
[5] How to Get Your Kids to Listen and Engage – Kris Prochaska
[6] Gokhale, A. A.1995. Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking. Journal of Technology Education. 7 (1): 22-31 .
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/kids-girl-pencil-drawing-159823.jpeg6321125Anja Zlatovichttps://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngAnja Zlatovic2018-12-11 06:08:062018-12-11 06:08:06Benefits of communication on the learning process
What do you think of when you hear the word conflict?
Fighting? War?
Anger? Frustration?
Many people view conflict as bad, negative, and tend to avoid it. They believe that conflicts lead to “ugly” feelings, mistrust, damage to relationships, etc [1, 3]. True, there are indeed many possible negative consequences. Given this, can conflict be good? As with almost anything, conflict has advantages and disadvantages. So, the answer is yes – conflict can be good!
Conflict has the capacity not only to cause harm and pain, but also to create a positive change for us [1, 3]. A possible reason for its bad reputation is that conflicts are often poorly managed and handled in painful ways. Under appropriate conditions, conflict can provide important benefits.
10 Benefits of conflict
So, what are these beneficial effects? Here’s some of the advantages that well-managed conflict might include [1, 2, 3, 4]:
Conflicts focus attention on problems that need to be solved, but which have previously been ignored or neglected.
Creation of energy, focus, and the motivation needed for solving problems.
Released negative emotions (anger, tension, anxiety, sadness…) and better control of emotions.
Conflicts may prevent disagreement from becoming more intense or damaging.
Enhanced quality of many decisions– the critique of someone’s ideas by others encourages a more thorough evaluation of them.
Also, discussion of incompatible ideas may result in adoption of a more open-minded approach to issues and problems.
Facilitation of understanding of other people’s perspectives on the problems.
Increased closeness with each other and relationships clear of irritations. If the conflict is among groups, it leads to increased loyalty and cohesiveness. This further results in enhanced performance and productivity.
Stimulation of curiosity, interest, and information search. Conflicts also encourage the consideration of new ideas and approaches and leads to facilitation of innovation and change.
Growth– conflicts may promote cognitive, social, and moral development.
Conflict and emotions
So, under what conditions can conflict be beneficial? Let’s start with emotions. Conflict often creates the arousal of powerful negative emotions: anger, frustration, suspicion, etc. Also, it can cause stress and anxiety, which can lead to loss of sleep, decrease in productivity, and failure to be innovative or creative [2, 4].
At the same time, conflict situations often require the careful processing of complex information such as the opponents’ motives and intentions, their strategy, and the impact of their moves. This means that in order to solve the conflict constructively, you need to put in a great deal of cognitive effort. However, the likelihood of effective completion of these cognitive tasks is significantly reduced by the presence of powerful emotions [4]. So, what can we do about that?
A great way to master your skills in managing conflicts and making them constructive is to participate in Nobel Explorers, the first international STEM camp that focuses on soft skills as much as on the hard skills.In Nobel Explorers, we are aware of how powerful conflict can be and how important it is in negotiation. That’s why participants of all our projects work hard on mastering their conflict resolution skills with the help of our soft skills facilitators. And they earn cool badges like these below while doing that, so it is also fun!
How to deal with negative emotions
How can we maximize the probability that conflict will produce positive outcomes? In order for conflict to have benefits, it’s important either to avoid the arousal of negative emotions or to take active steps to reduce their presence [1].
It doesn’t have to look like this!
We can avoid arousal of strong feelings of anger and related emotions. That can be done in two ways:
Putting effort into inducing participants in the conflict to focus on the potential gains that may be obtained from a favorable resolution. In other words, try hard to show the participant(s) in conflict the advantages of choosing the resolution you think is best.
Providing participants with information as to why an opponent has adopted a particular stance. Here, you don’t need a third party – you can enumerate for the opponent arguments for the position you represent. This way, their reactions may be considerably more favorable and less emotional.
In many situations, it’s impossible to prevent the arousal of negative emotions among the persons in conflict. In such cases, there are two steps that can reduce such reactions:
Induction of positive affective states that are incompatible with anger or frustration. You can’t be happy and angry at the same time, right?
Exposing persons in a conflict situation to mild flattery, a small gift, etc. For example, lower your voice and tell them how good they are at managing conflict.
Now when you know how to handle negative emotions in conflicts, there’s one more thing –practice! The more you practice, the better you will be.
But why is this so important?
Conflict is inevitable
The reality is that conflict is part of all our relationships – at home, at school, at work… This being the case, it’s best to accept its inevitability, understand that it isn’t necessarily bad, and to practice managing it.
Other than learning how to handle differences in opinion, in Nobel Explorers you will also be able to practice a very cool skill that will help you turn every conflict into a constructive one and find a win-win solution for it.
Remember, The World Economic Forum listed soft skills as the skills you’ll need to thrive in the future since a lot of the jobs will be automated and taken by AI. One of those skills is negotiation and it has a lot to do with managing conflict! So, sign up for Nobel Explorers and master your future-ready skills!
Resources:
[1] Baron, R. A. (1991). Positive effects of conflict: A cognitive perspective. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal,4(1), 25-36. doi:10.1007/bf01390436
[2] Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, F. P. (2013). Joining together: Group theory and group skills (12th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
[3] Rebroadcast: Discussing Conflict With Clair Canfield On Monday’s Access Utah [Audio blog interview]. (2016, December 6). Retrieved July 20, 2018, from http://www.upr.org/post/rebroadcast-discussing-conflict-clair-canfield-mondays-access-utah
[4] Zillmann, D. (1979). Hostility and Aggression. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/conflict-and-emotions.jpg10241500Jelena N.https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngJelena N.2018-08-12 15:06:582018-08-23 14:50:07Conflict Can Be Good
Listening to others – In order for a two-way conversation to happen, one party must listen to what others have to say, processing information and understanding it
