Handling Conflicts

I can recall getting into a disagreement with one of my colleagues and it was about a whether or not the preschool school hall should have such a big gathering for Thanksgiving. See this co-worker was fairly new to our program and she just couldn’t grasp why we put so much work into our annual Thanksgiving Feast. To give a little insight, I worked for a preschool that provided services to low-income at-risk children and families and the area where our preschool was located was in a high crime area. So as we worked with these children and their families, we often enrolled children with many families issues such as poverty, lack of education, and incarcerated parents, and many came from single-parent homes. To make a long story short, this colleague of mine had never really experienced or worked with families with so many hardships that prevented them enjoying the finer things in life. So this was a total culture shock to her, seeing that she lives in and was raised in a more upscale area of the city. To her this was a whole new world and she felt that such a gathering for Thanksgiving was not needed. Since there was such a different in lifestyles for her, trying to understand the difficult circumstances of these families was really an issue for her. I tried to inform her that we make a big to do about our Thanksgiving Feast, because who are we to say that these families will even have a meal for Thanksgiving. All of the other colleagues were really excited about preparing for our Thanksgiving Feast and fellowshipping with the children and families that we serve. It was really a great experience and the families really enjoyed the meal, as we all sat family style and talked and built or formed relationships. At the end of the feast my colleague, stated that her eyes had been opened to a whole new world and to see the smiles on the children and families faces was really exciting for her and that she now understood why we strive to make sure that it is a great event. I also shared with her that we are always open to new ideas if she would like to share some with us for our next year feast.
Understanding this week’s resources about the third side, could have been helpful in this situation. Implementing them in this disagreement would have helped me to put myself in the shoes of the other person, which in this case my colleague’s shoes. It would have helped me to listen and acknowledge the point of view of the other person. Which in this case, my colleague had not been exposed to the lifestyles of others that were less fortunate then she was. This her this was a total culture shock.
To my Walden colleagues, I ask the question: How would you have handled this situation?