Insights Into Conflict
"Acting how I normally do in a conflict, I hurt people I really
care about."
When you disagree with someone, do you argue, fight, or try to force what you want? Do you try to get even or teach the person a lesson? Or maybe you give in and end up feeling dissatisfied with the outcome. What do you get and what do you lose from your usual way of dealing with conflict? How does it affect what you really want?
Insights Into Conflict is one of several conflict education offerings the Montpelier Community Justice Center makes available to the community. The intent of the five-hour course is to encourage positive resolution of conflict by educating participants about conflict styles, the value and skill of cultivating curiosity and listening instead of reacting, and the choices we all have about how we manage conflict. In this class participants work with others to learn some new ways to think about disagreements that might help them carry less anger, have better relationships, and feel happier.
"In every conversation, take time to listen to the person and try to understand
where the other person may be coming from."
This interactive class supports healthy, informed choices regarding conflict. By the end of the course, participants will have accomplished these objectives:
- considered their current values/beliefs and been exposed to alternative beliefs about conflict;
- explored attributes of conflict and its resolution;
- looked at their personal relationship with conflict;
- learned about alternative styles of managing conflict;
- completed an exercise in considering the positive and negative effects of various conflict resolution styles;
- practiced listening (instead of reacting) while noting the effect that has on the person sharing the story and themselves;
- experienced the ways in which perceptions can vary and their relevance to conflict resolution; and
- practiced analyzing a conflict and recognizing choices.
Four main points emphasized in this course are:
1. You have choices about how to handle conflict.
2. There are two (or more) sides to every story.
3. You can control what you do, not what others do.
4. Forcing what you want won't be the best for you in the long run.
"The next time... I will approach a conflict with a hope of a good ending/understanding."
This class can be tailored to specific audiences and delivered in one, two, or three sessions. Contact Yvonne Byrd at
ybyrd@montpelier-vt.org for more information.
