Quantcast
Channel: From the Field » Facilitation
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 10

Meetings and Our Circles of Conflict

0
0

by Jane Haskell

When we work with groups, we can help individuals in the group shift from thinking about personal agendas, axes to grind, positions, pet projects, or whatever we (or they) want to call it. We can encourage the group of individuals (including ourselves) to think about the common interest that brought us all together. Some view this as a shift from confrontation of positions to collaboration around a common interest.

Conflicts that are unresolved are frequently being discussed as a personality conflict, a value conflict or as someone’s fault based on a previous act. This is because people are unable to change their personalities, cannot change history and are rarely open to changing their values. Furthermore, conversations that are focused in these ways tend to create a great deal of animosity and resistance, and yet these conversations are extremely common.

What creates productive group discussion is to shift the focus to areas where there is or can be resolution: information, interests and structure. Interests are the concerns, desires, needs, and aspirations people have about a task, issue, or problem that people want satisfied or addressed. Information is relatively self-explanatory – we have all been in situations where the source of conflict is inadequate or inaccurate information. Structure refers to anything external to the individuals including geography (too far for some people to travel to the meeting), reporting structures (the supervisor and supervisee are in the same meeting and there is a palpable tension between the two), compensation systems, physical environment of the meeting, etc.

Andy Dorr, Island Fellow

When we look at these six sources of conflict in a circle composed of wedges, three may be considered as on the top half of the circle (personality, history, values) while the bottom half of the circle has as its components information, interests, and structure. Andy Dorr, 2013 AmeriCorps member working as an Island Fellow on Vinalhaven, Maine, recently guided learning in this area with UMaine facilitation training cohorts, and developed a circle of conflict to use as a guide, below. Click on the image to show full sized.

Circle of Conflict

A worthy 10 minute activity, similar to one that Andy used with the facilitation training cohort, is to contact one or more friends, share this concept and ask for a bit of time, either face-to-face, by phone, FaceTime, ichat, or whatever method works for you, to sort out various reasons for conflict in your groups.

Steps:

1. Consider conflicts in your life (or group) that resolved well or did not resolve well.

2. Jot down one to three conflicts. Then each person silently reflects if the focus of the conflict was on the top half of the circle (personality, history, values) or the bottom half of the circle (information, interests, and structure).

3. As a group quickly share where your conflict foci were located. (You may have a huge ‘aha’ moment when you realize why some conflicts were never resolved).

As group leaders and participants, discussions involving the group’s values and history are part of many facilitation/group processes and can be a valuable part. It is important for us to notice how these questions play out in our groups. If you and your friends have a bit more time, discuss these questions.

• How do we as facilitators or group leaders sometimes inadvertently focus discussion on the top half of the circle in ways that are unhelpful?
• How do we make a shift in the group’s discussion when participants are focusing on the top half of the circle – i.e. we can acknowledge differences in personality, values and based in history (the top half of the circle) and then shift the discussion to information, interests, and structure (bottom half)?

For more information on effective facilitation techniques or training opportunities, go the UMaine Cooperative Extension Strengthening Your Facilitation Skills website.

Credit: Material adapted from Jane Haskell and Gabe McPhail, Strengthening Your Facilitation Skills, Level 2 Curriculum. (Orono, ME: UMaine Cooperative Extension, 2012).

Jane Haskell is an Extension Professor with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and a Featured Blogger.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 10

Latest Images

Trending Articles



Latest Images