Conflict Management and Resolution: Mon Period 4 - Class # 9 - Mar 12

[dr-jwilsonmd.livejournal.com]

Wilson was leaning against the front of the desk, hiding a yawn behind one hand and holding coffee with the other. He hated daylights savings time. As everybody came in and got settled, he gave the group a tired grin and pushed away from the desk.

“All right guys. First things first, I’m going to be passing around a packet of information that details out our plans for this weekend, including who your roommates will be. If you have any questions or concerns about any of this, please see me after class, catch me during office hours or give me a call on my voicemail.”

Walking up between the rows, he passed out the packets and then headed back down to the front of the class.

“Today we’re going to be discussing the importance of clear communication in resolving a conflict.”



Lecture:

And on came the dreaded overhead projector with its small novel of notes for the students to take.

Communication Skills and Techniques:

Interpersonal / Small-Scale Communication - Robert Quillen wrote, "Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of emotion." These resources explain why interpersonal communication breaks down and how to make it more effective. A handout with greater detail.

Anger Management - Anger management refers to techniques that are used to defuse, direct or contain anger.

Reframing - Bernard Meyer wrote, "The art of reframing is to maintain the conflict in all its richness but to help people look at it in a more open-minded and hopeful way."

Factual Communication

Inter-cultural communication - Complete with Handout.

Establishment of Personal Relationships - While strong personal relationships alone cannot bring about conflict resolution, they can help to transform the conflict and make it easier to resolve. Relationships between the opposing sides help to build trust, improve communication, and increase tolerance.

Safe Spaces for Communication

Dialogue - In dialogue, the intention is not to advocate but to inquire; not to argue but to explore; not to convince but to discover. These resources introduce the concept of dialogue, discusses why it is needed, and suggests ways to do it effectively.

Narrative/Stories - Stories have been vital to all cultures throughout history. Recently, they have been purposefully employed as tools to promote empathy between adversaries and to help people heal from past trauma.

Large-Scale Communication - These resources discuss ways to communicate to large groups and even whole societies. While the media is the most traditional way of doing this, other approaches are also sometimes utilized, such as community dialogues or even "national conversations." Complete with Handout.

Class Activity:

“So anyone think they can guess what I have up my sleeve for you all today?” Wilson might have looked a bit fiendish with this as he rubbed the tips of his fingers together.

“I’ve broken you all into groups of three. Two –or three of you, as one group has four people- of you will have fifteen minutes to come up with a narrative story. On paper it must be two paragraphs of at least two sentences per paragraph. The third member of your group will then have a couple minutes to read what you wrote, memorize it and then come up in front of the class and tell the story. We’ll get to see how many of you come close to exactly what was written and how many of you change bits and pieces of what was written. Make sense? Let’s get started.”

Group 1:
Naomi
Summer
Lana

Group 2:
Luke
Teddy
Annette

Group 3:
Bel
Conner
Tori

Group 4:
Peter
Blair
Layla

Group 5:
Jim
Elizabeth
Tyler
Haruhi

Group 6:
Phoebe
Pippi
Marie

[Class cribbed from The Conflict Resolution Information Resource website. Please wait for The OCDs are up, go to it!]

Comments

Re: Class Project - group 2

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke shook his head. "I didn't kill anything," he said quickly. "I did punch a merthingie in the head, though. But that was only to stop him from skewering me on a swordfish."

Re: Class Project - group 2

[misshargrove.livejournal.com]

"Oh, okay. That's okay then. I mean, you've got to protect yourself right? And you're lucky, in a way - my merman fish thing wouldn't even get close enough to me to try and inflict damage. He was a real chicken. He was scared of me." She snorted.

"Maybe he was a mersheman and didn't have any gonads in which to be proud of. I don't know." She shrugged a little and looked like she might have given this just a little more thought than it deserved.

Re: Class Project - group 2

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Maybe he had inner tube envy," Luke suggested.

He didn't know what an inner tube was. Maybe they were really, really cool.

Re: Class Project - group 2

[misshargrove.livejournal.com]

Annette chewed her bottom lip in thought. "No, I think he was just envious of my glitter." She smiled.

"So, who is going to write and who is going to present? We should make Teddy tell the story." She snickered.

Re: Class Project - group 2

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke frowned, suddenly remembering a radio broadcast. He craned his neck. "I think his mun had an attack of the midterms he came down with the flu or something," he said, glancing around.

Re: Class Project - group 2

[misshargrove.livejournal.com]

"Poor Teddy. Okay, I pick you!" There! Ahh-hahh! That was settled!

Re: Class Project - group 2

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke thought about pouting. He settled for a sad little sigh instead. "Fiiine. You write."

Re: Class Project - group 2

[misshargrove.livejournal.com]

She encouraged him with a smile, "You look like a great story teller!"

Re: Class Project - group 2

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke blushed. "Thanks."

Re: Class Project - group 2

[misshargrove.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you're cute too. You'll be perfect in front of the class with everyone staring at you and listening intently. How great is that?" Annette grinned and grabbed her notebook and pen.

Re: Class Project - group 2

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke blushed harder.

It didn't sound like his favorite thing ever.

Re: Class Project - group 2

[misshargrove.livejournal.com]

Inwardly Annette was enjoying this.

She bent her head over her paper and wrote.

There once was this cute little blonde girl who was suddenly smacked in her face with a fish sea lion. It knocked her back on her ass bottom, then asked to be forgiven, for it wasn't his fault.

The sea lion endeavored itself to this little blonde girl, complaining that his master beat him and was tired of feeding him. The best way to get rid of him was to strap him to a catapult and send him flying far far away.

The little blonde girl could not tolerate animal cruelty so she set out to see this lord of the Fish and to set him straight on his treatment of sea creatures. He would not listen to her though; he even poked a hole in her raft and laughed at her. For that, she removed the huge gun she had strapped to her back and gave him one last warning, "Treat them all equal and fair, or else!" The lord of the Fish laughed once again and sent a wave of water crashing over her head.

The little blonde girl got the last laugh though, for she fired her gun and filled his sea full of pretty glitter. She shot the shiny everywhere and freed all his slaves!

"Here, Luke. It's probably longer than it should be." She handed the paper to him, grinning.

Re: Class Project - group 2

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke read it over, trying to use the vague instructions Yoda had given him to memorize the entire thing.

He took a deep breath. "Here we go (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/1276274.html?thread=75155570#t75155570)," he muttered.