When faced with conflict, teams often experience reduced productivity and high turnover as team members struggle to work together to find solutions. Conflict can be a normal part of working relationships, but it can also have long-lasting and harmful effects on individuals, organizations and society at large.To help groups resolve conflict more effectively, we can utilize the tools of mediation or arbitration. These processes engage participants in a structured conversation where they explore their conflicting positions, discuss how to move forward from those positions and create a plan for how to actually implement those changes moving forward.These processes also often include collaborative learning activities—such as reading, watching videos, discussing cases or analyzing data—that help team members understand each other’s perspectives and build a shared understanding of the problem at hand.
The Demartini Method is a system of mediation, arbitration and collaborative learning tools that has been used for over 70 years in a wide range of organizations and communities. It has been particularly effective in resolving complex labor and human rights issues, such as contract negotiations, community planning, housing and environmental sustainability projects and community development work.In these contexts, the Demartini Method has helped groups to better understand their own histories, cultures and contexts, as well as the different ways that people have lived, worked and negotiated together throughout history. It is a flexible toolkit that can be applied in many different contexts and teams.
One collaborative learning activity that can help team members better understand their conflict and find solutions is reading. To do this, you can select reading material that focuses on past examples of conflict and resolution, or you can create your own reading list based on a current case study or conflict.Reading can help your team to better understand conflicting positions, develop new insights and find inspiration for solutions. It can also help you to clarify your own position, make the team more inclusive by including people who have different perspectives, and gain a better understanding of your own position so that you can engage more effectively with others.
Active dialogue is a structured conversation in which participants explore their conflicting positions, discuss how to move forward from those positions and create a plan for how to actually implement those changes moving forward.Active dialogue can help team members better understand the nature of their conflict, clarify their own position, explore others’ positions and find common ground. It can also help team members to clarify their own position, make the team more inclusive by including people who have different perspectives and gain a better understanding of their own position so that you can engage more effectively with others.Active dialogue can be facilitated in a variety of ways, from small group discussions to large-scale panels and breakouts. It can involve reading from case studies or research, discussing case examples or exploring data to help inform your analysis and insights.
If you’re working in a legal context, you may want to consider using a collaborative analysis and problem-solving activity called a Fishbowl, which has been used to explore a variety of legal issues, including contract negotiation and drafting, human rights and labor issues.
The Fishbowl involves participants sitting in a circle and taking turns tossing a small paper plate with a “fish” inside into a bowl in the center of the circle. Each Fishbowl session is facilitated by one person and involves everyone else participating.
As each Fishbowl session progresses, each person will go through three steps: (1) identifying an issue that they’d like to solve and their associated concerns, (2) exploring the issue and its context, and (3) generating solutions. As each Fishbowl session progresses, participants will walk away with a richer understanding of the issues, their related concerns and possible solutions.
When engaging in collaborative analysis and problem-solving activities, it’s important to structure the conflict in a way that helps participants explore the issues, concerns and possible solutions.To do this, you can start by asking participants to explore their own underlying assumptions about the conflict and its causes. If people are new to this type of conversation and conflict, they may not be aware of their own assumptions and they may need help to surface these assumptions.If you are exploring other groups’ conflicting positions towards you, you can ask them what they think about your own assumptions and what they think you think about theirs. These questions can help you to better understand each other’s position and assumptions.
You can also consider exploring the root causes of the conflict. These are external factors that lie outside the group and its members and contribute to the conflict. These external factors can include the context in which the conflict arose, the history and culture of the groups involved, and the broader context of which they are a part. You can explore these factors with your team to get a better sense of the bigger picture and how each of your groups is positioned, both inside and outside of your organization.
When exploring the root causes of the conflict, it’s important to avoid the trap of blaming or placing blame on individuals or groups. Instead, try to focus on the larger context. For example, you can explore the broader historical context of which your groups are a part and the larger political, economic and social context in which your groups operate.
You can also explore current events and issues. You can ask participants what events or issues are currently impacting their communities and what concerns they have about these issues. These questions can help you to better understand the broader context of which your groups are a part.
You can also explore the impact of the conflict on members of your teams and the organization as a whole. You can ask participants what they think the impact of the conflict is on the individuals and groups involved. You can also invite participants to share their fears about the impact of the conflict on themselves, their teammates and the organization as a whole. These questions can help you to better understand the impact of the conflict and help team members gain a better understanding of each other’s concerns.
When working with groups to resolve conflict and find solutions, it’s important to engage in a structured conversation where participants explore their conflicting positions, discuss how to move forward from those positions and create a plan for how to actually implement those changes moving forward.When you want to engage in a structured conversation, you can use an active dialogue, a collaborative analysis and problem-solving activity or a combination of these methods. You can also explore the underlying assumptions of the conflicting positions, the root causes of the conflict and the impact of the conflict on members of the team and the organization. When you engage in a structured conversation, you can also consider asking participants to share their fears about the impact of the conflict on their teammates, themselves and the organization as a whole.