Personal Empowerment & Leadership Skills

Celebrating Life:
Art & Creativity

Local, Bioregional & Global Outreach

2b. Facilitation Skills: Decision Making and Conflict Resolution
The Art of Facilitation	How to Make Good Decisions	Understanding and Learning from Conflict

Three Elements to Understand Conflict

Just as it is useful to be able to label the type of conflict, it also helps to know that most conflicts, large or small, interpersonal or international, follow pretty much the same pattern, characterized by three important elements.

Conflict arises when we discover our differences and perceive them as a threat to our needs. It is fuelled with the usually strong emotional response we give to this perception — our combustibility — and sustained by the unequal distribution of power between human beings. Difference, Combustibility and Power are the key elements present in every conflict.

Perceiving differences as a threat	Conflict arises when we perceive differences as a threat to what we most value or when we believe these differences will prevent us from meet our basic needs.
Combustibility	Some people have a strong facility to make sparks fly in their interactions with other people. Other people have a strong facility to make sparks grow and turn them into a fire (big combustibility). Finally, some people have a certain control of their emotions and leave sparks to extinguish by themselves.
Power abuses	The unequal power distribution among people and the different ways we use our own power influences considerably the number and nature of our conflicts.

Conflict Scheme
Click on image to enlarge