More Than a Workshop: Raising Your Program's Conflict Resolution IQ
by Marcia Abbo, Mediator/Facilitator/Trainer, Conflict Resolution Dialogue, Washington, DC
A workshop is not necessarily the most effective way to raise a Head Start program's IQ (knowledge) of conflict resolution. That was evident when a conflict resolution workshop was pilot-tested before head Start Region III's CAMEO (Creating and Managing Effective Organizations) management training conferences in 1992 and 1993.
CAMEO brought together grantee teams for group and individual discussions and exercises in the areas of team building, strategic planning, leadership, and conflict resolution. The workshop approach, however, was discarded during the planning stage in favor of finding ways to weave knowledge of conflict resolution throughout the activities of the week-long CAMEO.
As a result of the re-design, CAMEO integrated conflict resolution by creating opportunities for participants to talk about conflict, shift their understanding toward the positive aspects of conflict, and use strategies for dealing swiftly and constructively with problems.
Instead of the topic being avoided, CAMEO participants learned firsthand that conflict could be openly talked about as a natural part of any group experience. They also learned that problem-solving techniques could replace inappropriate uses of both avoidance and power-based approaches to handling conflict in the workplace.
Some of the strategies used to raise the conflict resolution IQ at CAMEO included:
- Having a professional conflict resolution specialist available for training, technical assistance, and crisis intervention.
- Placing quotations and cartoons emphasizing the positive nature of conflict throughout CAMEO notebook materials and in meeting rooms.
- Distributing handouts, some with strategies for specific problems, such as the Conch Shell Discussion (see article 5);
others encouraging participants to "try out" new behaviors during their group discussions, like TODAY PRACTICE: "Everyone else is right."
- Providing a conflict resolution bibliography and selected books and videos to spark staff team discussions.
The underlying problem to be addressed in conflict resolution is that the societal view of conflict is negative. (Quick: What are the first three words you associate with conflict?) This negative view leads to the use of ineffective strategies which only postpone the inevitable or create resentful "losers" who become more interested in retaliation than cooperation. But changes of attitude take time.
Changing this disputing behavior to be more constructive involves more than teaching new skills in a workshop. It requires shifting underlying beliefs about conflict. For that to happen, people need to understand that conflict is a normal and natural process and that it can be useful in many ways.
Since conflict resolution IQ depends as much on learning a new attitude as on learning skills, Head Start directors can take many steps to shape staff's new attitudes toward conflict and conflict resolution. (See article 5). By providing a larger learning context for the occasional training workshop on conflict resolution, they will also be maximizing the program's investment of time and money.
Raising a program's conflict resolution IQ is an ongoing process, which is also greatly enhanced when an organization's policies and procedures support the constructive resolution of conflict. (See article 5 for more details.)
_________________________________________________________________
Conflict Resolution Dialogue, 5332 Nevada Avenue, NW, Washington,
DC 20015. (202) 362-4173.
E-mail: MAabbo@aol.com
Back to Top | Back to Table of Contents | Next Page