Hi. I'm Julie Tietz, and welcome to "Conflict Resolution-- Putting the Pieces Together." Today, we're going to talk about how we can analyze and map out the various dynamics and functions of a conflict.
The first thing that we need to cover and recognize is that conflict is always dynamic, so there's always something going on within the conflict, even if it appears that there might be a stalemate. When we have a stalemate in conflict, it's where we reach that state of impasse. So neither party is really willing to take any further action in order to advance their interests, and this could be for a variety of different reasons-- money, time, energy-- whatever the reason may be.
So we are at a state of impasse. Nobody's moving, and it appears that nothing is happening. But since conflict is always dynamic, we know that conflict is stewing. So the parties' attitudes and perceptions towards each other are continuing to intensify, especially those negative ones.
When we are looking at a conflict, we can really recognize a lot of unobserved changes within the conflict when we do our analysis and conflict mapping. So some of the things that we can find when we are doing our conflict mapping includes finding those periods of escalation. So here, we see the conflict moving from a less intense stage to a more harmful or more intense stage.
So when we find these periods of escalation, we need to put these in our conflict map. Because sometimes parties are in the heat of the moment, they might not recognize these various periods of escalation, or even recognize at first what caused them. So the conflict map really-- we also can find those hardening of positions. And that's where we find the parties moving or being more firm within their position and thinking that their position is the only way in which the conflict can be resolved.
But we know that with positions and interests, that positions are maybe what we state we want, but those underlying reasons are interests. And we know that positions are not necessarily the only way in which we can resolve a conflict. And when we map out our hardening of positions, we can see maybe those little subtleties that caused us to be more firm within the position within the conflict.
We also can identify polarization of attitudes in our conflict map. So here, we find parties' negative attitudes towards each other become more extreme. And we know that in order to move within the conflict towards resolution, we need to break down those negative attitudes and perceptions that the parties have towards each other. And in order to do that, we need to map it out, to figure out, again, those unobserved changes that the parties may have not witnessed or have been able to see because they are in the heat of the moment within their conflict. The map will really help us identify those unobserved changes, so we can lay it all out for them and they can see that themselves.
Another thing that we need to know about conflict is that in some cases, parties may be receiving some sort of benefit from being in the conflict, And so they'd rather remain in conflict than resolve it. And that's because the conflict, in some way or another, is promoting their interests. And when we are using our analysis and conflict mapping, we really need to clarify those benefits. So ask them and figure out what they are gaining from being in the conflict. And once we clarify their benefits, we need to see those benefits as their interests.
So we know that our interests are what we need in order to be satisfied and happy. And in our conflict resolution process, we know that once we identify those parties' interests, they need to be met in order for the conflict to move forward towards resolution. And the same goes here. We need to meet those parties' interests in order for them to be able to think about or move towards resolution.
Let's take a look at our key points on dynamics and functions of conflict. We know that conflict is always dynamic. There's always something going on, even if it appears that there is a stalemate. And when we are doing our analysis and conflict mapping, we can clarify a variety of different things, and that includes periods of escalation, hardening of positions, and polarization of attitudes that we discussed.
Also, we know that in some cases, the conflict itself may be promoting parties' interests, and so they would rather remain in the conflict because they are receiving a benefit, rather than resolving it. And so when we identify those benefits and recognize them as interests, we then can meet those interests, or attempt to meet those interests, to move towards a lasting and sustainable resolution for the parties.
Here are your key terms before we go. Feel free to pause and look at them closer. Thanks for taking the time out, and I can't wait to catch you again, next time.