February 2010 Archives

We all resolve conflicts every day. Many of our conflicts are so small we hardly notice them. Some are ones we address all the time and are very skilled at resolving. But there are some conflicts which arise over and over in our most significant relationships which never seem to be adequately worked through.

Because they keep coming up--and because they are in relationships which are important to us--we do everything we can think of to try to resolve them. When we can't we often decide that they are irresolvable. "Since I have tried everything," we reason, "and it still isn't fixed, there must be nothing I can do about it."

An interview with Dr. Mark Lee Robinson about the applications of Creative Conflict Resolution to large scale conflict.

What makes your approach to conflict resolution a breakthrough?

I am not entirely comfortable with that term "breakthrough," but it is true that the perspective I bring to this field does allow experts--people who have wrestled professionally with the problems of conflict resolution--to shift to a point of view which they find to be significantly more accessible to creative invention. Some aspects of the shift are complicated but there are two that are central and straightforward. One has to do with what we mean by conflict and the other has to do with what we mean by resolution.