Human relationships are generally produced through an exchange between two or more parties, where communication is a fundamental factor for these relationships to achieve their main objective from the psychological and social point of view. In this sense, when we talk about human relationships, we must make special mention of the interaction that can generate positive and / or negative responses between the individuals that generate this relationship.
Then, we must also bear in mind that when the interaction encounters barriers on the communicational level, conflicts caused by different reasons are present, and that they must be overcome using effective strategies that open the doors to understanding and consensus among those involved.
In this way, the groups that are in conflict must work to propitiate an adequate communication climate to overcome obstacles and barriers. This process can occur in any type of relationship, whether family, social and / or work, needs the convergence of elements that together form an effective system that meshes the pieces in a satisfactory manner, to achieve objectives and goals.
One of the strategies most used in the management of conflicts at the business level, are those based on synergy, which is a term of Greek origin “synergy”, which means “working together”, and whose essence calls for cooperation, work or effort to achieve an objective or goal, through the realization of a certain complex task, which in turn can be composed of another series of secondary activities that allow the success of the entire process.
But, you will wonder when this term began to be used, since its use begins in the religious sphere in the epistles of Saint Paul, when it referred to the result of the joint work between man and God, which gave it an almost exclusively theological use, and it was not until 1925 when the term began to be used in a non-theological context, with the emergence of the general theory of systems, which was proposed by the German biologist, Ludwig Von Bertanlanffy.
It should be noted that, until very recently, this term was used more frequently in the field of medicine, to explain the synergistic effect of two organs, which occurs when they work together to generate an improvement. In the business or organizational field, the synergy would be associated with the production of additional effects, which originates thanks to the joint work between two or more parties (organizations, departments, etc.), to achieve common benefits, which would not occur if they will act separately.
Taking into account these approaches, it is necessary to clarify that when there is a group of people interrelated, they make up a system, but this does not mean that it works optimally, because conflicts can arise due to various causes, they require cooperation from the parties involved to achieve satisfactory results; and that is where synergy is present as a result of exchange, cooperation and communication, which fosters positive attitudes towards the system or organization, making cooperation essential, to mark a common operational line and achieve “among all” related objectives.
Therefore, synergy is considered a product of an exchange process, and it does not exist if there is no interaction between the components of a system or group of people, which is part of the personal as well as the organizational dimension, considering as well as the essence of transforming leadership, which generates transcendent and positive changes in the environment where the processes and activities are carried out.
It is also important to note that in some social areas people do not have the habit of working in groups, to the division of tasks and responsibilities, to the debate of ideas, to joint decision-making through agreements, which are only achieved when there is effective communication and productive leadership, which takes into account the initiatives of each member, their ideas and opinions, in order to finally develop a work that is the result of all this within a system that draws on each element.
At this point, it is convenient to remember that a system basically consists of a set of components that are related to each other, trying to reach one or more objectives, which is directly related to the general theory of the systems mentioned above and which implies the use of synergy, as a tool to achieve satisfactory results within a specific process, such as the management of conflicts in the personal, social and / or work environment.
However, we must also clarify that at the organizational level synergy only occurs when the target objectives are achieved considerably, taking into account the result obtained as a whole, of greater scope or quality than could be reached if the parties had acted separately or individually.
For this reason, a family, a group or an organization is only considered synergistic, when the members that make it up cannot perform a specific function, without depending on the rest of the members, as in the case of conflicts, whose management can not to be given if each person involved acts individually without having the opinion and / or ideas of the rest of the group involved in it.
In the synergistic process, attitude plays a fundamental role, since the behaviours that generate synergies are by definition generous, flexible, cooperative, that allow the flow of information, the generation of ideas that allow constructive debate, effective communication and resolution of conflicts, where the emotional intelligence of the members of the group of people involved is of the utmost importance so that the understanding flows and with this the objectives set are achieved.
In this way, the basic paradigm that is generally used in synergistic processes is the Win-Win, which involves the activation of a mental and emotional structure that must promote at all times the mutual benefit in all human interactions that are present in a specific process, be it in the family, social, professional or work environment, where a vision of life prevails as a cooperative, non-competitive scenario.
This win-win principle is based on a principle of abundance for all actors present in a given event or situation, which is the basis for success without excluding the success of others, considering the points of view of others and using these differences to build a path that leads to a new solution and represents a third alternative, propitiating the necessary conditions for synergy in the group, guiding the process in a creative and mutually beneficial way.
In this way, we can increase the possibilities of effectively handling conflicts, acquiring skills in each experience to control each of the variables that play a decisive role in each situation. Therefore, management specialists consider that managers at any level should handle synergy very well, since in the management of conflicts is one of the main skills that must have possess within an organization.
Even more so when, nowadays, conflicts, instead of being considered totally destructive and negative, are considered as a normal, inevitable phenomenon that gives opportunities to learn, correct and improve different areas in a productive way in the organizational field.
These conflicts can occur in different ways according to organizational behaviour, existing intrapersonal, which are caused by dissatisfactions and contradictions “within” the same people; the interpersonal, who are present due to confrontations of power, values, interests, norms, deficient communication, etc., among the people that make up a group, and finally, labour or organizational conflicts that arise from problems related to work, and relationships that are established in this, between individuals, groups and / or departments.
But, let’s move to the personal plane, conceive their lives as a company, which has several departments: family, friends, work, each of which is a subsystem or subset within the global system. Afterwards, we must consider that a family conflict, for example, is generated by disagreements between the parties, which must be handled with the participation of those involved and / or of all the family members, depending on the level of severity of the conflict, for which is necessary to activate a synergistic mechanism that manages to engage the pieces within a context of cooperation and understanding, using emotional intelligence, control of emotions that promotes effective communication, with the ultimate goal of overcoming this conflict, and prevailing the win-win principle among all the members.
Acting in this way, we can propitiate favourable conditions in all the environments in which we operate, considering that in the current globalized and highly competitive world, one of the biggest personal and group challenges is to get the human resources involved “to work more as a team “, where everyone understands and internalizes that the benefits of working together are much greater than the sum of the parties, either in joint actions to overcome a conflict where everyone learns, or to achieve family, social and / or economic goals.
In this way, to get a group of people interrelated as a system, activate and act with effective coordination where synergy is present, we must begin with the identification of the weaknesses and strengths of the group, to then establish the strategies that allow to optimize their functioning, from the perspective of common benefit, and the more experiences are held in this area, the greater the individual and group satisfaction, and the lower the number of conflicts that arise.
ALFA