Conflict between two or more parties is typically caused by either one of two circumstances. Conflict can be caused by a past experience, eventually leading to a lack of trust, animosity, and even personal or property damage. The second leading cause of conflict is the inability of two or more parties to agree on and map out a desirable win-win future state. The key to successful conflict management is getting all parties to focus on and remain in the present as they resolve their differences, and then vision together for a new mutually-acceptable future.

Visionary Partnership utilizes a unique five-step process that works most effectively in the resolution of even the most damaging conflict situations.

Step 1: Commitment

Before starting the resolution process, all parties involved must first commit to following the process, and to achieve a desirable outcome for all parties. Each participant's desired outcome is communicated to the other participants in order to create a common understanding.

Step 2: Grounding

During the grounding phase participants learn to recognize and separate emotions from the facts, seeing both sides of the argument objectively. Non violent communication techniques are explored to help prevent further disagreement and conflict escalation. Participants also learn effective centering techniques in this phase that lead them back to an objective mindset when negative emotions arise.

Step 3: Dialog

In this phase, participants discuss their respective positions, exercising non-violent communication learned in the previous phase. This phase is initiated and led by the facilitator until participants can clearly reach an understanding of one other's position, and acknowledge each other's point of view. At this point, participants enter into direct dialog in order to reach a deeper understanding and clarification of the conflict situation.

Step 4: Visioning

During the visioning phase participants are led through a guided visioning exercise where various future-state scenarios are visualized as if they were actually taking place in that very moment. The visioning exercise allows each participant to ponder the various scenarios, and allow new ideas to emerge through their intuition, creating a future devoid of any conflict - a future where all parties can co-exist in harmony. Immediately following the visioning, common ideas from all participants are grouped into like themes and discussed, emphasizing similarities and downplaying any differences that have no significance. Brainstorming discussions then follow until breakthrough ideas are reached and agreed upon by all parties.

Step 5: Action Planning

In this final phase participants work collaboratively to prioritize agreed-upon resolutions created during the visioning phase, and develop an action plan that both ends the conflict and allows a win-win plan to unfold, benefiting all parties.

Effective conflict resolution requires a highly trained and effective facilitation team that can earn credibility through both knowledge of process, and the self-confident handling of heated situations that are likely to occur during the process. Effective conflict resolution can help keep you from paying costly attorney fees and entering time-consuming court dates where nobody wins.

Contact us at Visionary Partnership to set up a preliminary conflict assessment, and begin the process towards a harmonious and collaborative future.