It’s not easy to resolve conflicts. There are powerful barriers that get in the way—and they are often ones you create: blaming others but not yourself, using words as weapons, and failing to recognize cultural differences. Overcoming such challenges will help you improve your conflict-management skills.

By this point, you might think that constructive conflict management is simple. You adopt a collaborative approach and work with those involved to forge healthy compromises, satisfying integrative agreements, and positive structural improvements. But it’s not that easy. Instead, a wide range of barriers keeps us from choosing effective approaches. Three of the toughest barriers are attributional errors, destructive messages, and cultural differences.