Have direct conversations

Something that most of us learn very very early in life (as kids) is to get attention by reporting to someone (of power) when we think some one else has made a mistake.

On a personal note, all of us parents must discourage this in our kids in order to bring them up as self-confident individuals capable of handling situations themselves. To start with, we must teach what they can do next time on their own before coming to us. Then, we need to reinforce this.

On a professional note, we must always first talk to our target group (who we have a perceived conflict with) directly. If they are not able to work/discuss with us after we have tried all possible approaches, then, we could go ahead and involve a higher authority to help out with the situation. In my experience, almost always, direct conversations result in a solution. I emphasized "perceived" conflict above, because, most often conflicts are due to incorrect perceptions and they can be cleared through calm conversations. Most important is that this approach still leaves us with a positive image and creates no rivals. If we ever have to work with the target group (and there is a good chance of that in this small world), we want to be on good terms with them.