Conflict within groups and its cures: concerns for the "Super Congress"

NCDD- National Coalition for Dialog & Deliberation: Community News Blog
Group Decision Tip: Causes of Conflict, and Cures

• In principle, the cause of most conflict is misunderstanding. The parties don’t have the same facts, same experience, same perspective, and don’t fully appreciate how someone else could see it differently.
• A second cause of conflict is fundamental difference of values. This is where the parties understand the facts and each other but they simply have different values. For example, one person believes in Jesus as savior, another does not. Each person’s beliefs are deeply rooted and not easily changed.
• Third, parties are in conflict because of some outside issue, something that has nothing to do with the immediate issue at hand. The conflict might be because of some incident between the parties that happened years ago and has never been dealt with or because of a mental disorder, an irrational fear, or an addiction that is influencing someone’s judgment or behavior. An outside issue is preventing one or more key people from seeing or acting clearly.
• Practical Tip: When conflicts arise, work first to develop shared understanding. Talk, listen, express truth, learn, be open-minded, let go, ponder, talk some more.
• If differing values are the cause, identify the values you have in common. Identify your common goals. See how you believe in similar things but have different ways of acting on them. Document and work on the things you agree on and let go of the rest, for now.
• If a debilitating outside issue is at play, peace will only come about if the issue is dealt with. If it is your issue, deal with it, seek help, do the personal work. If the issue is not dealt with by the parties, an outside authority must be invoked to make and enforce a decision.
• Group Decision Tips are written by Craig Freshley. At his site, www.groupdecisiontips.com, you can access a complete archive of all his Tips, comment, and view others’ comments.

As we follow the deliberations over the national deficit by the "Super Congress" committee of 12 congress members, we can be mindful of the potentiality of conflict within the group, what may cause it, and what may be done to alleviate it.  Of course, we may keep these things in perspective in our own private and public deliberations as well.