Conflict Owner's Manual
We help you use conflict competencies you already have, so you can do conflict better.
Dr. Deborah Sword is a specialist in conflict analysis and management. Tyson Bankert is a community facilitator and artist. We have decades of experience and training in helping people expand their conflict competencies.
Our logo is a dandelion because conflict is like a weed you don't want in the garden. But since it's there, you want to know how to manage it, keep it from spreading, and feel good about how you dealt with it.
Conflict Owner's Manual
96 Did your simple conflict get complicated fast?
Some conflicts expand beyond their origin story, so you lose track of who started the conflict, and what your original conflict conflict goals were. That's conflict creep, where conflict exceeds the simpler scope and more limited objectives you had when the conflict started. After a conflict creeps, parties forget about solving the problem, and just want to win. So, how do you stop conflict creep? Using John Paul Lederach's six stages of conflict escalation, we look at how you can recognize the stages, and stop conflict creep.
show notes:
Lederach, J. P. (1999). The Journey Toward Reconciliation. Waterloo, ON, Herald Press.
conflict escalates through six changes.
1, people place blame instead of accepting responsibility.
2, everything that’s wrong replaces the simpler issue that began the conflict.
3, language becomes accusatory, generalized and defensive.
4, people seek allies, and categorize others as friends or enemies.
5, people believe they're justified to react to the latest insult and aggressions.
6, no middle ground remains, and people stop communicating.
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Dr. Deborah Sword is a conflict specialist with decades of experience and training to share.
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