Collaboration and Conflict Transformation in Multiparty Processes

Target Audience:

Natural resource managers and conservation professionals who engage in collaborative group decision processes.

Summary and Objectives:

Natural resource professionals involved in multiparty collaborative decision processes face increasingly complex decisions where underlying conflict can undermine their efficacy if unknown or inappropriately addressed. Conflict transformation encompasses managing and resolving conflict by harnessing the energy inherent in conflicts to motivate change and improvement, not only of the decision but also of the institutions and platforms for implementation. This broadens the temporal perspective to target lasting solutions. Distinct from workplace interpersonal conflict, this course focuses on working with conflict in the context of a collaborative decision process. Presentations, case studies, and discussions will be integrated with practical group exercises to target skill-building in conflict transformation. This course was developed in partnership by staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Army Engineer Institute for Water Resources.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Become better conflict managers during decision making processes.
• Develop an awareness of their own tendencies in thinking about and responding to conflict.
• Design a process that builds trust and repairs broken relationships to promote enduring solutions.
• Build greater awareness and acknowledgement of conflict and its impacts on decision making processes.
• Employ techniques to address, manage, and transform conflict in decision making processes.
• Assess the conflict using tools such as the progress triangle, conflict mapping, and narrative analysis.
• Evaluate and institutionalize collaborative decision making processes.

Competency Addressed:

Conflict Resolution - Basic, Stakeholder Management - Basic, Teamwork - Basic, Decision Support - Basic, Interpersonal Skills - Basic