WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES AND PEDAGOGY
Like other educators, we find it useful to identify for ourselves specific knowledge, skills, and attitude objectives for the training.
Knowledge Objectives
A glance at the table of contents of this volume indicates that there are many areas of academic inquiry that affect the study of conflict and its resolution.
How much of this body of knowledge can be included in an introductory experiential workshop?We have decided to emphasize the distinction between competitive and collaborative approaches to conflict resolution (see Chapter One). Thus, we want participants to understand conceptually and experientially why and under what conditions cooperative conflict resolution processes such as collaborative negotiation and mediation are a better choice for individuals and society than are the commonly used strategies of competition and avoidance. Although we make it clear that we value cooperation, we also believe that we must not impose it on others. Our pedagogy encourages participants to “try on” this new paradigm to see if it is useful. Ultimately, each participant must be self-motivated to make meaningful changes in his or her conflictresolving behavior. We hope to provide information and experiences during our training that foster this exploration.
Through short essays in the training manual and mini lectures, the trainers highlight and summarize in nontechnical language key insights from the field. In graduate courses at Columbia University and other institutions, we have supplemented these essays and mini lectures with additional assigned readings.
Although specific knowledge objectives are associated with each module, there are some “global” knowledge objectives for the course:
• To develop an understanding that conflict is a natural and necessary part of life, and that how one responds to conflict determines if the outcomes are constructive or destructive
• To develop awareness that competition and collaboration1 are the two main strategies for resolving conflict and for negotiation
• To develop awareness of one’s own tendencies in thinking about and responding to conflict
• To become a better conflict manager—in other words, to know which conflict resolution method is best suited for a particular conflict problem (for example, avoidance, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, litigation, or force)
• To become aware of how critical it is to the process of constructive conflict resolution to share information about one’s own perspective without attacking the other, and to listen and work to understand the perspective of the other side
Skills Objectives
The most fundamental skills objectives of our training are the following:
• To effectively distinguish positions from needs or interests
• To reframe a conflict so that it can be seen as a mutual problem to be resolved collaboratively
• To distinguish threats, justifications, positions, needs, and feelings and to be able to communicate one’s perspective using these distinctions
• To ask open-ended questions in a manner that elicits the needs, rather than the defenses, of the other and, by so doing, communicate a desire to engage in a process of mutual need satisfaction
• When under attack, to be able to listen to the other and reflect back the other’s needs or interests behind the attack
• To create a collaborative climate through the use of informing, opening, and uniting behaviors
Attitude Objectives
The shifts in attitude and awareness that we intend to support are a little harder to enumerate succinctly. We hope that each participant leaves the program believing that collaborative conflict resolution skills are useful in their own lives.
We hope that they commit to the larger goal of increasing the use of cooperative conflict resolution skills at all levels to create a more caring and just society. We want people to leave with a greater sense of “humility” or “conscious incompetence”—an awareness that there is always room to improve their conflict negotiation skills and that improvement will not only make their lives better, but will enhance the lives of those around them. We want participants to be aware of the pervasiveness of identity-based conflict and to increase their own sense of humility to counter the self-righteousness and dangerous fundamentalism that has grown so exponentially in our time. In short, we want them to leave owning their part.In a similar vein, we want participants to leave with an appreciation of difference as a source of richness rather than a liability. We want them to be intrigued by the multiple perspectives that human beings from around the globe can have about the same event and the multiple possibilities there are for misunderstanding. While we want to excite and motivate, we also want to avoid the Pollyanna effect with participants underestimating just how difficult it can be to use these skills. In most of our programs, participants are returning to systems that are not predominantly collaborative. They will likely encounter managers and colleagues who may very well not support them in their use of collaborative conflict management skills. We want them to leave ready and wanting to do the hard work and be realistic about how difficult it might be. (See Chapter Twenty.)
Our process permits exploring this continuum through whole-group and small-group discussions and reflection through personal journaling. This investigation varies in depth and breadth depending on the specific audience and the time available for the training.