Self-Help in Conflicts

Last year, in Vienna the CSI president Artak Kirakosyan had a business meeting with a famous Austrian mediator, co-founder of the Trigon Institute, Friedrich Glasl. As a result of the meeting they reached to an agreement to translate Glasl’s book “Self-Help in Conflicts” into Armenian and organize a course on conflict resolution. With the assistance of the Embassy of Great Britain in Armenia and together with “Development of e-Community in South Caucasus” project, an e-course (in Armenian) based on “Self-Help in Conflicts” has been developed.

On September 19, the “Self-Help in Conflicts” course was launched, gathering participants with different professioanal background and of different age groups. We will regularly post the brief descriptions of the lessons on our website.

September 19 - lesson 1
Topic: Conflict Capability and Conflict Resistance
During the first lesson it was talked about conflict and what do we understand under it, about the two extremes, called "conflict avoidance" and "belligerence", as well, as about our behavior in conflict situations.
2 card games. The first one was a team game, related to negotiations and mutually beneficial cooperation. The goal of the game was to collect maximum points.
The second game was more individual and showed how it is possible to play and understand rules, when participants play without speaking. It demonstrated also how the participants change and bring forward their own rules in order to reach victory, if the rules of the game are not clear from the very beginning. Discussion of the games and conclusions.

September 26  - lesson 2
Topic: Developing Assertiveness
Discussion of the previous lesson
Introduction to the topic of the current lesson, related to social conflicts, differences and types of differences that can appear in perceptions, ideas, thinking, feelings, will and behavior of a person in case of a conflict. Within the framework of this topic, conflict resistance of organizations was also discussed and several methods were suggested for recognizing and controlling the first symptoms of tensions and clashes.
"The Art of Considerate Confrontation" role-playing game was played. It consisted of 3 phases, each of which demonstrated a different approach to a conflict situation: (1) Killing Confrontation (aggressive behavior), (2) Avoidance, and (3) Balanced, Considerate Confrontation (a balance between the killer behavior and avoidance).
Discussion of the game and conclusions.

October 03  - Lesson 3
Topic: Personality as a Source of Social Conflict
Discussion of the material of the previous lesson and of the three phases of the accomplished exercise-role play
Introduction to the new material, describing the threefold core of human personality  - body, soul and spirit
Another game was played. The participants divided into pairs and choose one simple topic presenting their own arguments, while talking parallel to each other. At the same time the speakers had to try to listen to each other's arguments. Discussion of the game and conclusions

October 10  - Lesson 4
Topic: Some Basic Forms of Interpersonal Conflict
Instructional game on sterotypes. This game reveals peoples' attitude in relation to someone towards whom widespread stereotypes exist. In the course of the game the previous lesson's material was discussed. Discussion of the game and conclusions.
Introduction to the material of the current lesson, presenting several forms of self-confrontation and self-development, that is to say  - how well people recognize ideal and negative images of themselves and in which direction they develop their personalities.

October 17  - Lesson 5
Topic: How Can I Work on Myself in Conflict Situations?
Discussion of the previous lesson. Each of the participants tried to understand his/her own personality according to the schemes and examples presented in the previous topic. It was hard for many of them to orient themselves and give a distinct answer, because in different periods of their lives and in different situations their behavior corresponded to several of the mentioned examples. Then participants divided into two groups in order to do the same exercise, but this time on example of their organization.

October 24 – Lesson 6
Topic: How do Conflicts Flow?
The participants split into two groups to practice one exercise from the previous topic. Their task was to present their organization in the appearance of a person via answering to several questions. Here are some examples of the questions: what is his/her sex? How old is he/she? Where does he/she live? What does he/she like? Etc.. After answering to all the questions the participants had to understand what would be the best to change and how to improve that person’s life, to make it more interesting and prosperous.

October 30
Meeting with Friedrich Glasl
During the meeting Mr. F. Glasl presented the 9 stages of conflict escalation, as follows:
1. Hardening
2. Debate, polemics
3. Actions, not words
4. Images and coalitions
5. Loss of face
6. Strategies of threat
7. Limited destructive blows
8. Fragmentation of the enemy
9. Together into the abyss

At the end of the meeting the famous conflictologist answered the questions of the participants, which referred to not only the discussed subject, but also to the previous topics and in general – to conflict transformation.

November 2
Meeting with Friedrich Glasl
During the second meeting Mr. F. Glasl talked about the different methods of conflict transformation. He also introduced different exercises, one of which the participants tried to play altogether. It was about the different stages of conflict deepening process, when the opponents are trying to solve different issues with help of mediators, by choosing some issues about which they are still ready to discuss and negotiate.

November 7– Lesson 7
Topic: How Do Conflicts Escalate?
This was a discussion about lectures and meetings held by Friedrich Glasl. Another exercise followed after this. Participants split into pairs and each of them had to ask 2 questions during the next 5 minutes – “what are you thinking?“, “what are you feeling?”. Then everyone discussed the exercise and came up with some conclusions.

November 14– Lesson 8
Topic: How Do Conflicts Escalate?
The participants chose a conflict and started discussing it from the perspective of the 9 stages of escalation. Then as an example of a conflict the poem “The Dog and The Cat” was discussed, in which one can clearly see especially the first stages of Conflict escalation. The discussion became so lively, that the participants started discussing also their work-related and personal conflicts.

November 28– Lesson 9
Topic: What Forces Work During The Conflict Escalation? What Can I Do Right After I Notice The Conflict Symptoms
Again the participants chose an example of a conflict and discussed the factors that are involved in the escalation, development, or the contrary – in its’ resolution. New materials were presented to the participants, among which “the expression of non-value” part deserves a special attention. This part can be especially useful to illustrate the tensions in the early stages of a conflict. “Non-value”-s actually mean that the certain flow of events is not desired, doesn’t have a value, and thus it is something we should not let happen.
The participants also played one game, during which 2 people sit in front of each other and express their feelings by drawing on the same paper at the same time.

December 5 – Lesson 10
Topic: What Can I Personally Do in Different Stages of Escalation?
The new materials were presented about very important methods that can be used by people who happened to be involved in conflicts but have never got a professional training in the field.
This was the last training, so the participants decided to talk and share the knowledge that they got during the training. They also tried to clarify questions that occurred during the study of the book “Self-Help in Conflicts”.