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CONFLICT RESOLUTION & RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT... … Appropriate Resolutions™ for home, work, community, and everywhere in between. |
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© 1998-2008 Joseph Ravick and Appropriate Resolutions™ |
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GLASL's CONFLICT ESCALATION MODEL In specific terms, the following model can serve as a guide when conflicts come at you, seemingly out of nowhere. As one evolves, watch the dynamics, the others involved, and compare what you’ve experienced with the ‘escalation stages’ in Glasl’s model. Use them again as you reflect about ‘what happened’.
STAGE 1: HARDENING: The first stage of a conflict escalation develops when differences resist resolution efforts. Opinions harden into fixed positions about how a certain issue ought to be handled, and people begin to doubt about others’ commitment to resolving. Suspicions may also begin about hidden agendas.
STAGE 2: DEBATES AND POSTURING: Arguments develop into verbal confrontations. People look for more ways to force his/her/their positions. The dispute is no longer restricted to a well-defined issue and the people resort to bickering about the underlying causes of what's bugging them. Often they exaggerate "what won't work" with what others have suggested, doing whatever they think/feel is necessary to prove that they are 'right' and the other ‘wrong’. Consciously or unconsciously, they also try to keep the other (s) off balance emotionally as the situation escalates.
STAGE 3: ACTIONS, NOT WORDS: People no longer believe that further talk will resolve anything. Shift their attention to whatever actions are available to them, their most important goal at this stage becomes blocking the other person, now seen as an opponent, from reaching her/his goal. Their sole purpose now is to satisfy their own needs by forcing the 'other (s)) to give in.
The more serious the issue to the one who owns it, the greater the potential 'fallout' from an ineffective resolution process. –Joseph Ravick
STAGE 4: IMAGES AND COALITIONS: The focus of the conflict has now shifted from the differences, where it began, to winning or losing, victory or defeat. People actively try to enlist support from bystanders (triangulation or splitting). They plan and implement actions to enhance their own image in the eyes of potential supporters, often staging confrontations in public in order to recruit those they see as potential supporters. Conflict activities are now focussed on putting-down opponents. (how they've re-labelled the those in opposition to them). All their focus is now about ‘how to gain the upper hand’, rather than problem-solving towards issue-related results. Actions now concentrate only on the other’s identity, attitude, behaviour, position, and those seen as the other's allies; those seen supporting ‘the enemy’. |