Examines conflict-management process design in organizational contexts, including impact assessment. Advances interpersonal communication and intercultural competencies. Explores the use of technology as a process tool.
The course will provide you opportunities to delve into your own approaches to conflict engagement and how you engage with diversity in thought, worldview, cultures, and needs with an aim to address differences and bridge similarities. We will explore how (and whether) to engage with a particular conflict, consider the analysis of the conflict, potential processes to address it, and how to engage with complexity.
One of the key goals of any engagement with a conflict system is to make a connection. This applies to the conflict engagement specialists connecting with the system (as third party assistance or third party intervenor, even as embedded practitioner) as much as to facilitation connection between and among the parties and stakeholders. This requires consulting the people within system to learn where the “pain points” and “leverage points” are. The place where a process takes place is essential. The place may also inform choices for smaller processes that are used within larger process designs.
A key aspect for any process choice is the impact on individuals as well as the overall conflict system. What ‘better’ looks like might be different than what was originally asked for or even anticipated. Often, the impact of the presence of a third party is underestimated in process design thinking and planning. This includes intended and unintended consequences of engagement with a conflict system and the impact the have on structures, attitudes, and transactions and the people making up the system.