Mitigating conflict in a busy world of information transfer

Dylan John

We are in college now and are often reminded about paperwork, processes and formalities that need to be attended to for a wide variety of reasons. These reasons may range from signing up for Spring/Summer classes, scholarships and financial aid or maybe even documentation pertaining to our banking and housing contracts.

When there is a large transfer and exchange of information, documents and applications, there is a probability for error and as a result a probability for misunderstandings and disputes. It is always good to be mindful of this as the organizations we typically deal with for the transfer of information are good with tracking information, but if we do not have it in our own hands and find ourselves in a difficult situation we may not have much to prove our own case. Those who are typically able to mitigate conflict are those who are prepared to effectively present their case.

As the president of an effective mediation and advocacy related organization, my club members and those who know me will tell you that I am very big on “documentation” and “record keeping”.

There is no new knowledge that I am sharing with you, as we have always been told to hold onto receipts or to make sure we record transactions. But I am simply reminding you the importance of practicing this in order to protect yourself from being on the losing end of a misunderstanding or dispute situation because you did not document or keep record of what happened.

For a personal story, I recently had fraudulent transactions on my bank card and as soon as I noticed this I cancelled the card, but there was money that was still being pulled out of my account. I began to monitor my account every 30 minutes, recording each transaction and mapping it out logically while taking screenshots as evidence. This information helped me greatly in communicating and explaining to my bank the sequence of events and as a result, I was able to streamline the issuance of a new card.

Next time you find yourself dealing with payments, documentation or contracts. Be sure to make copies for your own personal reference in the event you ever need to logically defend yourself in a dispute situation or misunderstanding