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Boundary Spanning Tools for Research Teams, Session 3: Conflict Transformation

Session Description: Conflict is inevitable in team work, but with the right mindset and some facilitation tools, you can help transform conflict from unproductive fighting into creative problem solving. These two tools help us find options where we see none. Be sure to bring your Field Notebook with you and pull up our growing inventory of tools presented in this series.

  • Tool 1: Gradients of Agreement, presented by Hannah Love. The gradients of agreement provides an alternative to yes/no decision making by allowing everyone to mark their response along a continuum. This helps transform conflict from all-or-nothing into something.

    • Presenter: Dr. Hannah Love is a team scientist and professional facilitator. She works full-time doing team science consulting with Divergent Science LLC. Her background includes twelve years of facilitation experience in higher education, water conflict, and science facilitation; and since 2015 she has been designing trainings, retreats, and workshops for scientific teams. Follow her on Twitter @DSTeamScience and Instagram @DivergentScience.

  • Tool 2: Principled Negotiation, presented by Gabriele Bammer. Principled negotiation a.k.a “Getting to yes” is a dialogue method that provides a way of resolving differences and conflicts in interests by finding mutually agreeable fair solutions through a problem solving approach. This helps transform conflict from a focus on mutually exclusive positions to mutually shared interests.