INSIGHTS FROM PRACTICE

The first pedagogical insight is that each learner has a unique and implicit “the­ory of practice” for resolving conflicts. Each individual’s theory of practice has been developed over a lifetime, influenced by many factors, such as various individual differences, skills, and competencies (see Chapters Fifteen and Six­teen), as well as salient cultural and identity groups’ norms and values (see Chapter Twenty-Eight), and situational roles and hierarchies.

Second, learners need both support and challenge to examine their own theory of practice. Intellectual and experiential comparison of competitive and collabora­tive processes can create challenging internal conflict for most learners. From our experience, learners experience two types of internal conflicts. The first is felt by those who embrace collaboration as an ideal and yet experience dissonance as they discover through course exercises how much of their own behavior is viewed by others and themselves as competitive, accommodating, or compromising. (See discussion of the dual-concern model in Chapter Fifteen.) The second is felt by those who resist or reject collaboration and then experience dissonance between their own theory of practice and the alternative paradigm presented in the work­shop. Although the first group is typically larger, because most participants in our training are volunteers, the trainers must create a learning community where all feel safe enough to try on new skills and attitudes.

The third insight is that experiential exercises shift the responsibility for learn­ing from the trainer to the participant. For many adult learners, role-playing and subsequent public debriefing are powerful learning tools as well as unfreezing devices for behavioral and attitudinal change. The excitement, fun, and support of mutual self-discovery counteract the potential embarrassment of being less than perfect in front of the other students.

Fourth, self-reflection based on video or audio feedback gives many learners motivation to modify problematic behavior. Videotaping or audiotaping the role­play exercise, for later review, enables each learner to observe and reflect on his or her own behavior in terms of general knowledge about the collaborative con­flict resolution process presented by the trainers.

Fifth, user-friendly models and a common vocabulary enable a group of learners to talk about their shared in-program experience. Conceptual frames, like the ones taught in modules two through seven (discussed in the next sec­tion), are broad enough to illuminate the underlying structure of a collabora­tive process across many contexts and cultures because they leave room for variation. The trainer needs to be contextually sensitive to explain and illustrate the heuristic frames in ways that are culturally and situationally relevant.

The final insight is that learners need follow-up and support after workshop training to internalize new concepts and skills. As in other areas of skills train­ing, most participants need additional coaching in a supportive environment for behavioral change to occur (Raider, 1995). A three- to six-day workshop in conflict resolution can make the learner aware of what she does not know, thereby begin­ning the learning process; but more work is needed if a collaborative process is to become the preferred response to mixed-motive conflicts. This humbling but valid observation needs serious consideration by the conflict resolution field—by trainers as well as organizations that sponsor trainings.