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International Online Training Program On Intractable Conflict |
Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, USA |
Constructive Confrontation involves four steps: 1) conflict assessment; 2)solution identification and selection; 3) implementation, and 4) solution evaluation and revision
Conflict assessment involves the identification of what the conflict is about, who is involved, why they are involved, and what complicating factors are making the situation especially difficult to deal with effectively.
People who routinely deal with conflicts--lawyers, mediators, and diplomats, for instance, always do a conflict assessment before they decide how to approach a problem. They try to understand as much as they can about what is going on and who is involved so that they can plan and then carry out an appropriate response.
People who are involved in a conflict themselves often overlook the importance of doing a conflict assessment. They assume that they know what is going on, who is involved and why, and what they should do about it. When conflicts are simple--when they involve only two people and one or two issues, for example--a conflict assessment may not be important.
But when conflicts are complex --involving many people, many issues, perhaps having a long history and strong emotions, it is very helpful to conduct a conflict assessment before deciding how to respond. If you are being helped by a conflict professional (a lawyer or mediator, for instance) they can help you do the conflict assessment, or may do it for you. If you are acting on your own, however, you should do your own conflict assessment before making choices about appropriate ways to address specific opponents or issues, or how to handle the conflict over the long term.
HOW TO DO A CONFLICT ASSESSMENT: Many conflict assessment guides are available. Most often, they consist of lists of questions to answer or things to consider before dealing with a conflict. Although the lists differ in details, most contain many similar elements. These include questions about who is involved, what they want (or need) that they do not have, and how they are trying to get their needs or desires met.
This website is, in itself, a detailed conflict assessment tool. By working through the website and answering the questions it asks, you will get a detailed understanding of the conflicts you are involved in, including the nature of the core conflict and the complicating factors or problems that are making the conflict more difficult to handle. Once you understand this you can move on to the identification and selection of solutions for particular problems. If you want a shorter, simpler conflict assessment tool, several are available. (See below.)
After the conflict assessment is completed, disputants (and third parties) should have a better understanding of the problems they are facing. If the conflict appears to be negotiable, and if the parties are ready to sit down and negotiate, settlement is usually relatively simple to obtain.
In long-lasting, intense, and complex conflicts, however, obtaining even a short-term settlement can be very difficult. Often, the best that can be done is to deal with individual problems within the context of the larger conflict. For instance, if misunderstandings are a problem, efforts can be made to improve communication between the parties. If procedural issues are in dispute, procedures can be changed to make them more open and fair. While incremental solutions to particular problems will not fairly resolve the conflict, they can make it more manageable and more constructive. They will help limit the complicating factors, allowing the parties to focus more of their attention on the core aspects of the conflict and do so in a way that is more likely to advance their interests than they could when complicating factors distorted the situation.
The third step in constructive confrontation is the implementation of the solutions chosen in step two to limit complicating factors and to increase the effectiveness of the confrontation over the core issues. Since resolution-resistant conflicts are usually complex and involve a number of different complicating factors, a choice must be made about timing of the solution steps. One problem can be taken at a time, or several can be dealt with at once. The optimal approach will be different in each case. For this reason parties must look at the security of the problems and the availability of solutions to make a judgment about what to do when.
Resolution-resistant conflicts are often so complex that it is impossible to predict what the outcome of any particular action might be. Solutions that are expected remedy a problem may do so, or they might not. They also might create unexpected problems in other areas. For this reason, it is critical that parties carefully evaluate the results of all of their actions, and revise their conflict strategies as needed in an effort to make the confrontation as constructive as possible.
Copyright ©1998 Conflict Research Consortium -- Contact: crc@colorado.edu