Question

Exchanging compliments is a common ritual, especially among women. Susan and her colleague Bill had both given presentations at a national conference. On the airplane home, Susan told Bill, “That was a great talk!” “Thank you,” he said. Then she asked, “What did you think of mine?” He responded with a lengthy and detailed critique, as she listened uncomfortably. An unpleasant feeling of having been put down came over her.

In the above given scenario determine where the conflict exists and also provide the suitable steps to resolve it.            

Answer 1

The conflict :
When Susan asked Bill how he felt about her speech, her expectations were that she would receive a complement. But the actual result of that question was a critique by bill. She expected that after both their speeches, it would be natural to complement each other amicably as an appreciation, but Bill might have misunderstood that opportunity to critically analyse Susan's presentation.  

How to resolve the conflict :

• Susan has to be intuitively selective in seeking gratifications from the near future
• Susan and especially Bill has to keep linguistic styles in mind while giving and receiving criticism
• Criticism if warranted has to be constructive in nature while, the other person should be open to improve upon it and the critic has to observe and interpret behavior of the other person and adequately stop whenever he/she starts feeling uncomfortable