Gabriel Mongalo Third Side
Gabriel Mongalo
Conflict Management
“The Third Side”
“From the Balcony” William Ury says as he delivers his talk upon conflict resolution. I though this was an excellent metaphor representing that sometimes we as individuals must make time to look things from a broad perspective to enable us to view the larger picture. In todays turbulent times it seems all jump to rash decisions and become ever more impulsive by each passing minute. He gave a great example of a tribe down in South Africa, where a member for this particular tribe would hide the poisonous spears of the hunters when a heated debate was to unfold. Soon after they would all join in together in a group literally talk it out whether it’s one hour or three days. This forces them to come to a resolution and enable them to find common ground.
Our text mentions several conflicts styles, the one I find to be quite the fit for Mr. Ury take on resolution is collaborating. Our text defines collaborating as a conflict style whose goal is to develop a solution that meets all the important needs of both parties. I believe it is important to note that Ury states that there always seems to be two sides two a conflict but in reality there are three sides. There are the two opposing sides and there is “us”, the third side as he states. “Us” is the surrounding people who are around the conflict. We are the ones who wield the power to resolve these issues at hands.
Ury admits that although many seem very daunting but they are not impossible. He uses Europe in the 1940 as an example and compares is to today’s modern era. If someone had said 60 years ago that Europe would be one of the safest places in the world, nobody would have believed it. What led to this resolution according to Ury was a collective whole of people uniting as one to come to a resolution based on “us”. He makes an argument that the same could be done in the middle east where resolution to conflict seems highly implausible. He
Conflict Management
“The Third Side”
“From the Balcony” William Ury says as he delivers his talk upon conflict resolution. I though this was an excellent metaphor representing that sometimes we as individuals must make time to look things from a broad perspective to enable us to view the larger picture. In todays turbulent times it seems all jump to rash decisions and become ever more impulsive by each passing minute. He gave a great example of a tribe down in South Africa, where a member for this particular tribe would hide the poisonous spears of the hunters when a heated debate was to unfold. Soon after they would all join in together in a group literally talk it out whether it’s one hour or three days. This forces them to come to a resolution and enable them to find common ground.
Our text mentions several conflicts styles, the one I find to be quite the fit for Mr. Ury take on resolution is collaborating. Our text defines collaborating as a conflict style whose goal is to develop a solution that meets all the important needs of both parties. I believe it is important to note that Ury states that there always seems to be two sides two a conflict but in reality there are three sides. There are the two opposing sides and there is “us”, the third side as he states. “Us” is the surrounding people who are around the conflict. We are the ones who wield the power to resolve these issues at hands.
Ury admits that although many seem very daunting but they are not impossible. He uses Europe in the 1940 as an example and compares is to today’s modern era. If someone had said 60 years ago that Europe would be one of the safest places in the world, nobody would have believed it. What led to this resolution according to Ury was a collective whole of people uniting as one to come to a resolution based on “us”. He makes an argument that the same could be done in the middle east where resolution to conflict seems highly implausible. He