Conflict Assessment Guide
The Conflict Assessment Guide will help you map all of the central
elements of your conflict. As you’ll notice, much of this guide relies on main concepts and practices we discussed in earlier chapters of the book.
I. Nature of the Conflict
A. What are the “triggering events” that brought this conflict into
mutual awareness?
B. What is the historical context of this conflict in terms of (1) the
ongoing relationship between the parties and (2) other, external
events within which this conflict is embedded?
C. Do the parties have assumptions about conflict that are
discernable by their choices of conflict metaphors, patterns of
behavior, or clear expressions of their attitudes about conflict?
D. Conflict elements:
1. How is the struggle expressed by each party?
2. What are the perceived incompatible goals?
3. What are the perceived scarce resources?
4. In what ways are the parties interdependent? How are they
interfering with one another? How are they cooperating to
keep the conflict in motion?
E. Has the conflict vacillated between productive and destructive
phases? If so, which elements were transformed during the
productive cycles? Which elements might be transformed by
creative solutions to the conflict?
II. Orientation to the Conflict
A. What attitudes toward conflict do participants seem to hold?
B. Do they perceive conflict as positive, negative, or neutral? How
can you tell?
C. What metaphoric images do conflict participants use? What
metaphors might you use to describe the conflict?
D. What is the cultural background of the participants? What is the
cultural context in which the conflict takes place?
E. How might gender roles, limitations, and expectations be
operating in this conflict?
III. Interests and Goals
A. How do the parties clarify their goals? Do they phrase them in
individualistic or systemic terms?
B. What does each party think the other’s goals are? Are they similar
or dissimilar to the perceptions of self-goals?
C. How have the goals been altered from the beginning of the
conflict to the present? In what ways are the prospective,
transactive, and retrospective goals similar or dissimilar?
D. What are the topic, relational, identity, and process goals?
E. How do the TRIP goals overlap with one another?
F. Which goals seem to be primary at different stages of the dispute?
G. Are the conflict parties “specializing” in one type or the other?
H. Are the identity and relational issues the “drivers” of this dispute?
I. Are any of the goals emerging in different forms?
J. How do the goals shift during the prospective, transactive, and
retrospective phases?
IV. Power
A. What attitudes about their own and the other’s power does each
party have? Do they talk openly about power, or is it not
discussed?
B. What do the parties see as their own and the other’s dependencies
on one another? As an external observer, can you classify some
dependencies that they do not list?
C. What power currencies do the parties see themselves and the
other possessing?
D. From an external perspective, what power currencies of which the
participants are not aware seem to be operating?
E. In what ways do the parties disagree on the balance of power
between them? Do they underestimate their own or the other’s
influence?
F. What impact does each party’s assessment of power have on
subsequent choices in the conflict?
G. What evidence of destructive “power balancing” occurs?
H. In what ways do observers of the conflict agree and disagree with
the parties’ assessments of their power?
I. What are some unused sources of power that are present?
V. Styles
A. What individual styles did each party use? Use the five-style,
dual-concern description of styles.
B. How did the individual styles change during the course of the
conflict?
C. How did the parties perceive the other’s style?
D. In what way did a party’s style reinforce the choices the other
party made as the conflict progressed?
E. Were the style choices primarily symmetrical or complementary?
F. From an external perspective, what were the advantages and
disadvantages of each style within this particular conflict?
G. Can the overall system be characterized as having a predominant
style? What do the participants say about the relationship as a
whole?
H. Do the participants appear to strategize about their conflict
choices or remain spontaneous?
I. How does each party view the other’s strategizing?
J. What are the tactical options used by both parties?
K. Do the tactical options classify primarily into avoidance,
dominating, or collaboration?
L. How are the participants’ tactics mutually impacting on the
others’ choices?
VI. Conflict and Emotions
A. In your situation, what approaches to change have you utilized or
are you contemplating? How effective are these approaches?
B. Choose several emotions that the parties have expressed in this
conflict. What are the functions of these emotions? How are they
mitigated or moderated? Use the circumplex model to describe
the emotions.
C. What can you learn about emotions in this particular conflict? Do
the feelings cluster around “needs being met” or “needs not being
met”?
D. What emotions are seldom expressed? What is the result?
E. Discuss how parties might use positive emotions to help in this
particular conflict.
F. In this conflict, has anyone strayed out of the “zone of
effectiveness”? How? What have you or might you do about this?
G. How is mindfulness being used/not used in this conflict?
VII. Analyzing Interactions and Overall Patterns
A. What system dynamics characterize this conflict?
B. What rules of repetitive patterns characterize this conflict?
C. What triangles, coalition, and microevents best characterize the
conflict?
D. How destructive is the tone of this conflict?
VIII. Attempted Solutions
A. What options have been explored for managing the conflict?
B. Have attempted solutions become part of the problem?
C. Have third parties been brought into the conflict? If so, what roles
did they play and what was the impact of their involvement?
D. Is this conflict a repetitive one, with attempted solutions
providing temporary change but with the overall pattern
remaining unchanged? If so, what is that overall pattern?
E. Can you identify categories of solutions that have not been tried?
IX. Negotiation
A. Are the parties able to negotiate with one another? Why or why
not?
B. What is done to equalize power?
C. Do the parties use primarily dominating tactics, collaborative
tactics, or some combination?
D. Were the parties able to reach agreements that are durable?
X. Forgiveness and Reconciliation
A. In this conflict, are parties working toward forgiveness or
reconciliation? Clearly state which in terms of the chapter’s
information on the difference between the two.
B. In this conflict, what power imbalances should be addressed?
How are parties doing/not doing that?
C. For you, is forgiveness a decision or a process? Use information
in the chapter to discuss your position.
D. In what way is your situation calling for intrapersonal or
interpersonal forgiveness, or both?
E. Discuss the problems of apology in this conflict.
F. What lessons from other cultures might inform your study of your
own conflict?