Conflict Coaching: An Innovative ForM of Dispute Resolution
by Cinnie Noble: Canadian Arbitration and Mediation Journal, ADR Institute of Canada, Summer 2003

Coaching
Coaching may be defined as an alliance between a trained coach and a client who wants assistance to improve one or more aspects of his or her life. The role of the coach is a combination of personal consultant, supporter, advisor, motivator and trainer.

At an organizational level, internal staff such as human resource professionals may coach staff in their career development as a way for example, of supporting improved performance and productivity. External corporate coaches are also hired by companies to perform these tasks and others, such as helping executives to reorient and strategize their goals or groups of staff members to work more compatibly and effectively. In whichever context and for whatever objectives, coaching is gaining a foothold in organizations and corporations, in small businesses and at a personal level.

Conflict Coaching
Conflict coaching is a unique coaching model that marries the field of coaching with the field of Alternative/Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR) provides a practical and preventative approach to conflict management. The goal of conflict coaching is to assist people to prevent or resolve specific disputes and/or improve the way they deal with conflict in general. This may be on a professional or personal basis.

Among other benefits, conflict coaching provides individuals with the opportunity to develop insight into their own dispute resolution style and possible contribution to unproductive interactions. The process also helps people to identify their own interests and those of others, to consider what skills are needed to resolve conflict in constructive and conciliatory ways, to practice alternative ways to replace habitual and counterproductive behaviours and to enable effective and satisfying problem-solving.

There are many forms that conflict coaching may take, contingent upon the particular objective of the individual client. Conflict coaching serves many purposes and may or may not be dispute specific. That is, many clients seek coaching to help them be less argumentative, competitive, confrontational, etc. Situations may be used in coaching, but it is the behaviour clients seek to change – not just as it may apply to a certain altercation. On the other hand, forms of conflict coaching that are dispute specific include negotiation and mediation coaching..

Negotiation and Mediation Coaching
To a great extent, mediators coach parties when assisting them in pre-mediation and throughout the mediation process. However, the focus of coaching one party to the dispute extends beyond the usual scope of the mediator’s role in any given mediation. In mediation coaching, the coach champions the party and actively works with him/her to develop options, to anticipate reactions, practice responses, etc.

In negotiation coaching, people hire a coach to help ready themselves for a specific negotiation in which they are going to be involved. Some of these clients may also want to improve their negotiating skills in a more general way. Like other forms of conflict coaching, a combination of coaching principles and concepts from transformative, narrative and interest-based mediation are used for these types of coaching.

Application
Practitioners in the field of dispute resolution will find that conflict coaching is another mechanism for helping clients manage conflict. (It is important to note of course, that many dispute resolution practitioners and coaches are commonly engaged in “coaching” people around conflict issues. The concept that has been developed and referred to in this article formalizes one model, while acknowledging that the practice is not totally unique.)

Divorce, relationship and business/personal partnerships, in addition to organizational (co-workers, manager-employee, etc.) coaching, are just some of the applications of conflict coaching. As a mechanism for preventing unnecessary disputes and resolving conflict in ways that transform destructive reactions to constructive responses, the application is expansive.

Summary
Conflict coaching is an innovative form of dispute resolution that assists people on a one-on-one basis to improve their effectiveness in handling conflict. As such, it has far-reaching possibilities and applications. Conflict coaching may not be a process that everyone trained in the field of conflict management and dispute resolution will embrace. However, for practitioners interested in working one-on-one with clients, you already have much of the skill base to be able to learn and develop conflict coaching as an additional conflict management technique.

 

Cinnie Noble, ACC, CM, LL.M. (ADR), is a lawyer-mediator and ICF certified coach who created the CINERGY® model of conflict coaching. She chairs the ACR Workplace Section’s new Conflict Coaching Subcommittee and is co-chair of the ICF’s Special Interest Group on Conflict Coaching.