We often find ourselves in conflicts because people disagree or see things differently. It can be helpful to remember the five steps to conflict resolution.
STOP before you lose control of your temper and make the conflict worse.
SAY what you feel is the problem. What is causing the disagreement? What do you want?
LISTEN to the other person’s ideas and feelings.
THINK of solutions that will satisfy both of you.
ASK someone else to help you if you still can’t agree.
Think of a variety of conflicts that commonly occur in groups, or at home or school. Select two or three of these and discuss how the five steps for resolving conflicts could be applied to each situation.
Act out one of these conflict situations, either as yourselves or with puppets.
Talk together about whether the conflict resolution worked. You may want to highlight:
- When words were used successfully to express feelings instead of blaming someone else or using physical force.
- When someone was able to explain why they felt that way. An explain message is constructive and points to a solution. ‘
- How it makes people feel when blaming language is used, and what reaction it gets from the other person. Often a blame message puts the other person on the defensive and leads to more conflict.
If any of the role plays weren’t able to resolve the conflict, think of suggestions for improvement as a group and run the role play again.
Take it further
If you enjoyed this work around conflict resolution, you might like too explore Fist to Five, a technique for consensus decision making within your group.
You could also research how conflict resolution happens on a global scale – have a look at the work of the UN and also explore Amnesty International and the work they do in conflict areas.