The Conflict Resolution Toolbox: Models & Maps for Analyzing, Diagnosing, and Resolving Conflict

In real-life conflict resolution situations, one size does not fit all. Just as a mechanic does not fix every car with the same tool, the conflict resolution practitioner cannot hope to resolve every dispute using the same technique.

Practitioners need to be comfortable with a wide variety of tools to diagnose different problems, in vastly different circumstances, with different people, and resolve these conflicts effectively. The Conflict Resolution Toolbox gives you all the tools you need: eight different models for dealing with the many conflict situations you encounter in your practice.

This book bridges the gap between theory and practice and goes beyond just one single model to present a complete toolbox - a range of models that can be used to analyze, diagnose, and resolve conflict in any situation. It shows mediators, negotiators, managers, and anyone needing to resolve conflict how to simply and effectively understand and assess the situations of conflict they face. And it goes a step further, offering specific, practical guidance on how to intervene to resolve the conflict successfully.

Each model provides a different and potentially useful angle on the problem, and includes worksheets and a step-by-step process to guide the reader in applying the tools.

• Offers eight models to help you understand the root causes of any conflict.
• Explains each model's focus, what kind of situations it can be useful in and, most importantly, what interventions are likely to help.
• Provides you with clear direction on what specific actions to choose to resolve a particular type of conflict effectively.
• Features a detailed case study throughout the book, to which each model is applied.
• Additional examples and case studies unique to each chapter give the reader a further chance to see the models in action.
• Includes practical tools and worksheets that you can use in working with these models in your practice.

The Conflict Resolution Toolbox equips any practitioner to resolve a wide range of conflicts. Mediators, negotiators, lawyers, managers and supervisors, insurance adjusters, social workers, human resource and labour relations specialists, and others will have all the tools they need for successful conflict resolution.

About the Author

Gary Furlong is a mediator, trainer, facilitator, and consultant with Agree Dispute Resolution. As a mediator, he handles files ranging from organizational and family disputes to complex commercial and construction matters. As well as mediating, Gary delivers consulting, facilitating and coaching services in dispute resolution, partnering, organizational change, conflict management, and other areas.

He is a frequent presenter and speaker to various organizations and associations on the topics of alternative dispute resolution and conflict management. As a trainer, Gray teaches conflict management, negotiation, and mediation skills in the private sector and at numerous educational institutions, such as York University, the University of Toronto, the Queen’s University Industrial Relations Center, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at Conrad Grebel College. He is Past President of the ADR Institute of Ontario, is a Fellow with the International Academy of Mediators, and holds the Chartered Mediator (C.Med) designation. Gray is a principal with Agree Dispute Resolution in Toronto, Canada.