THE FAMOUS CONFLICT MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP

(Programmed for Sunday 13 September, this workshop did not take place.  This is the story of the workshop which has its own, virtual, reality).... and it is told by Evija and Kristina...
 

Kristina and Evija were sitting on the balcony near our nice kitchen. They were drinking coffee, eating apples and talking, talking, talking. What they were talking about? Something very serious was going on - lots of papers, discussions, silence and long discussions again. Such words as conflicts, daily reality, problem-solving, avoidance, competition, compromise were flying in the air.  Tomorrow [Sunday], the conflict management workshop was going to take place.

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Kristina asked Evija, if she has experienced any conflicts in her life and with whom. Evija answered that small ones she has but, sometimes, she doesn't realise that there is a conflict going on. The same with Kristina.

Then the question about conflict resolution and about different approaches arose. Both Kristina and Evija found out that they are not sure which approach they like the best and which approach they use the most when being in conflict - avoidance, accommodation, competition, compromise or integration.  Which one would be appropriate and which one would be inappropriate in a certain situation?  It was almost as though intra-personal conflict was going on. Or maybe: inter-personal?   Fortunately, there was no personal, group or inter-group conflict, or even worse a group-organisation conflict on the balcony, otherwise the balcony would break down and it would be a big problem to get in the kitchen.

Then Kristina and Evija decided that it would be nice to invite some more individuals to the conflict management workshop.  There they could have more diverse discussions and conflicts in order to learn skills in effective conflict management.  There they could share ideas about different ways of dealing with conflicts, to try the "eight steps for managing conflicts".   These steps are important:

The Eight Steps For Managing Conflicts:

• Acknowledge
• Identify and clarify
• Diagnose
• Communicate
• Generate possible solutions
• Decide on best solution
• Implement
• Evaluate

What happened next? (Goodmorning, Frank!) Frank was very happy to see this invitation and he immediately wrote his name under it. But, competition between invitations on the wall was really big. And the conflict management workshop invitation was not very successful this time. Others won.

Kristina and Evija had to find out immediately in which kind of conflicts Frank was interested and what could they do all together.

The ANSWER was....

the Pillow Monster Exercise!

For those who don't know this, here is a short explanation of the methodology for this exercise:

• You need at least one sleeping person (Frank for example).
• Others should take their pillows, steal in to the room of Frank and while beating poor Frank should shout "pillow monsters".
• Then you can stop everything and make a reflection group out of the experience.

Kristina, Evija and Frank had to choose what to do on the next day - the conflict management workshop or the Pillow Monsters game.

There is an old Jewish saying "If there are two courses of action you should always take the third" - and Evija, Kristina and Frank followed it.

They went to organise conflicts in other workshops...