Conflict Resolution and the Mcircle ® tool

Leadership means understanding how people in your team manage conflict. You need to develop situations that provide enough creative tension to move things forward while keeping the friction manageable.

If you don’t get this right what happens? Too much emotional fall out and the environment is horrible – too little and nothing much will happen really. In either case you won’t get the results you need.

But there's no magic bullet. There are various strategies and some work better than others. The circumstances also determine which is the most effective one to use. The diagram illustrates the different strategies and how they fit together.

It’s important to be sensitive to the thinking styles and value systems of the individuals you are dealing with if you want to end up with a good result.

Dudley's model describes modes of behaviour as Shark (aggressive) Carp (defensive), Pseudo enlightened Carp (I'll change the world once I'm out of therapy) and Dolphin who has the emotional intelligence and strength to choose strategies at will.

The MCircle ® tool itself explores your positioning in this model and gives you some powerful insights into the way you and your team members handle conflict.

We run short courses in conflict resolution which outline the different strategies that are available and help you map them to the individuals that you have to manage and lead. Our half day course will help you play the percentages better, make more informed choices and improve your overall team performance. £95 + VAT.

As part of these courses, we use the m-circle tool from the Brain Technologies Suite, devised by Dudley Lynch.

This tool helps you assess which of these strategies you use most often and advises you on the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. They are available at £16.50 including postage

Buy M-Circle ® instrument at this link

You may also be interested in our free white paper on conflict resolution available here