Public health practitioners regularly are at the center of negotiating and resolving conflict. Certainly, one function of a public health leader is identifying unrevealed problems and their implications - often thereby creating conflict - and then rallying people toward meaningful and effective intervention. To do so, one must identify and understand the many dimensions of a public health problem. This instructional session presents a new and original method of non-adversarial negotiation and conflict resolution - "The Walk in the Woods" - a four-step process applicable to public health coalition building and problem solving. Step one, "Self- Interests," encourages each party to articulate their objectives from an interest-based perspective. Step two, "Enlarged Interests," is the reframing process that creates a thematic understanding of opportunities, problem solving assets along with constraints facing all the parties. Step three, "Enlightened Interests," is the creative phase in which parties imaginatively formulate otherwise undiscoverable options. Finally, "Aligned Interests," brings people to a synthesis of action and interaction through which they forge a commitment for moving forward. The working premise of this final step is "If I succeed, you succeed. And if you succeed, I succeed. Therefore, let's collaborate to ensure the shared success of our solutions." This is a partnership model for public health leadership that inspires buy-in to synergistic solutions, mutual gain outcomes, and goal directed achievement. The session introduces unique approaches to creative thinking, skill building, and strategic planning, and applies these practice models to problems typically facing public health practice leaders.
Learning Objectives: 1. Understand the multiple dimensions that contribute to the occurrence and escalation of conflict, allowing participants to prevent and manage those which do occur. 2. Facilitate organizational problem solving using a four-step process for generating options, finding solutions, and achieving buy-in. 3. Use models of collaborative problem solving to lessen the adversarial nature of organizational change, community building, and system integration
Keywords: Practice, Leadership
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.