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Hi, I'm Julie Tietz. And welcome to Conflict Resolution-- putting the pieces together. Today, we're going to talk about impasses and what that looks like in a conflict and a conflict resolution process. So when we're having an impasse, or the parties are experiencing an impasse in conflict resolution, they may be feeling frustrated, angry, stuck, worn out. And they're about ready to walk away.
And that's because when an impasse happens, the parties' interests cannot be jointly met. And so here is the point where people are really frustrated, angry, worn out. And they're just really ready to throw everything off the table and walk out the door. And so that's what an impasse feels like.
And so when we encounter impasse, does that mean that everything is lost and all of the work that we or the parties in the situation have gone through in the conflict resolution process, is everything that we've gone through lost? Well, when we are at an impasse, we can be having an impasse that affects the entire conflict, or we could have an impasse that only involves a few of our interests.
So it could happen both ways here. Impasse could means we are done. We're not going to talk about this anymore. No deal. Or we can have an impasse only on specific interests or issues within the conflict. But we can come to some sort of agreement on other issues or interests.
And so how can we recognize an impasse and work around it? Well, when we are working with an impasse, the parties or the conflict intervener can suggest to set aside that issue that the parties are really struggling with, set aside for the moment, and move on to other areas that are a little bit more easier or malleable to work with.
Or we could take a break. This is a really good opportunity if we can see that the parties are possibly reaching an impasse just to say, OK, let's take a break from talking about this for now. We need a breather. Come back at such-and-such a time, whichever everyone agrees on the allotted break time amount.
Also, what we need to do as a conflict intervener in this process is to go over all of the accomplishments that the parties have encountered. And maybe they have made so many agreements along the way. We need to acknowledge all of that.
Because once we do that, this can really rev up the parties to think, hey, we have gone through a lot here. We've accomplished a lot. This part's really tough. But I really have the energy and the strength now to work through this.
Or we also maybe need to generate new options if possible or figure out other interests that the parties may have. And that way, we can possibly work through this impasse. Also, if we can't reach some sort of agreement on one specific issue, maybe we can come up with a partial agreement that the parties can agree upon.
So we may not agree on one issue. But we certainly will agree on a lot of other issues. And let's write up the agreement surrounding those. And the one issue that's at impasse, we will have to deal with another time, or just let it be, or agree to disagree that we may never come to any sort of agreement on that particular issue that's at impasse.
Some people in conflict resolution in the field believe that there is no such thing as an impasse and that impasses aren't real. But rather when the parties come to that really frustrating moment where things are seeming to be falling apart, and there is really no ability to move on, these people believe that it's an opportunity to dig deeper and to explore more and really try and find out if there are those underlying interests and that there must be something else.
Because in the conflict resolution process, they believe that there is no such thing as impasse and the parties can come in and come to some sort of agreement here.
Now, let's go over our key points here on our impasse tutorial. So an impasse is where the parties' interests cannot be met jointly. And the impasse could be surrounding the entire conflict, or it could just be surrounding certain issues or interests that the parties are having.
And when we have the impasse surrounding only specific issues, maybe the parties can come to a partial agreement surrounding the issues that they agree on and decide to set aside the interests or the issues that they're at impasse.
Well, I really hope that you've learned something today. And thank you so much for taking the time out. And before we go, check out our key term, which is impasse. I can't wait to catch you again next time.