Master Class: The Hidden Value of Conflict

The workshop will contain a combination of theory, practical exercises, and sharing experiences.

What is the main goal of the day?

The main goal is that people understand that conflicts can have a function and we can learn and grow if we take them seriously.

What are the benefits for participants?

Main benefit is that participants will have more confidence in staying with and exploring a conflict instead of going to quick solutions. The benefit for the organisation can be growth and new perspectives.
We will also notice that the result of our intervention will have a deeper and long lasting effect on the team or organisation as a whole.

The Hidden Value of Conflict

Conflicts are often seen as a waste of time, such as unnecessary, difficult situations. We avoid them or try to solve them as quickly as possible. 

The Gestalt approach, however, sees conflict as an intensive moment of contact and as an expression of important (hidden) issues in relations, groups, or organizations. 

Although conflicts can also be very destructive and hurt people, the Gestalt approach embraces conflicts and invites participants to take the time to stay with it and explore it rather than focusing on quickly solving it, knowing that this approach will lead to better results on the long term. 

During this masterclass, I want to explore the experiences and personal style of the participants in dealing with conflicts, and for sure offer the Gestalt approach, which means:  

• Staying with the here and now,   
• increasing awareness on the conflict,  
• trusting the organismic self-regulation,  
• appreciate the differences,  
• appreciate the tension and  
• Exploring the function of conflict in the wider field. 

We will go through the possible escalation stages of conflicts and see what a constructive intervention in each stage can be. However, doing nothing can sometimes be exactly the right intervention. Solving a conflict is nice, but learning from a conflict is better.