Serious Play Forum

[Martin van Dijken]

Hi all,

I have two colleagues who are arguing on and off and today broke out into a pretty childish conflict. It’s gone on long enough and I want to help them understand each other better. I will give them an announcement for a session on Thursday where we will try to work out this conflict of theirs. I am also their manager, so I think they will be OK with me helping them with this.

I’d like to apply my LSP skills to help them see the light. I will think about it a little bit more, but was wondering if anybody has done this before and has some more concrete pointers?

Look forward to hearing from you,

Martin

[Rodrigo Borgia]

Hi Martin,

What I have done is to use LSP as a methodology for both parties to express them perspective on a certain topic.

So, my process is quite simple: introduction (warm-up), then perspectives and insights on subject a, then on subject b and then to have both sides to create a potential stabilized solution with a core concept of a and b.

Makes sense?

Have fun,

Rodrigo

[Martin van Dijken]

Sounds good, did the conflict in your case already escalate into an argument? I have to defuse the situation I think, your solution seems to help. I think I will need to talk to the both first, so that I can dig deeper into what the situation really is. Having them build their perceptions and insights on the situation might help indeed.

[Eli De Friend]

Hi Martin,
One question that can get this sort of discussion going is “what happened in the past”.
Perhaps introduce the discussion in a wider context with more people. If the problem doesn’t emerge during the wider discussion, you will at least have uncovered some interesting perspectives. You would then be able to drill down with those who are in conflict in a more subtle way.
Good luck in any case,
Eli

[Eli De Friend]

Hi Martin,
One question that can get this sort of discussion going is “what happened in the past”.
Perhaps introduce the discussion in a wider context with more people. If the problem doesn’t emerge during the wider discussion, you will at least have uncovered some interesting perspectives. You would then be able to drill down with those who are in conflict in a more subtle way.
Good luck in any case,
Eli

[Eli De Friend]

Hi Martin,
One question that can get this sort of discussion going is “what happened in the past”.
Perhaps introduce the discussion in a wider context with more people. If the problem doesn’t emerge during the wider discussion, you will at least have uncovered some interesting perspectives. You would then be able to drill down with those who are in conflict in a more subtle way.
Good luck in any case,
Eli

[Walter Vannini]

Hi Martin,
I have used LSP in counselling settingsfor a few years now with especially difficult participants (including post-trauma patients and a group of unemployed), and am familiar with the issue you present.
LSP is a great tool in this respect, rest assured.

The difficulty I see lies elsewhere, namely in hierarchy. Things will work out OK if you all are on the same hierarchical level, not if someone is above.

With hierarchy involved, reactions may focus more on the inevitable personal judgment the more powerful player will have after the session rather than on getting to a common solution.

LSP in a counselling setting can go very deep in a very short time and while your colleagues may not be fearful of not appearing professional enough when revealing their deeper motives in front of a stranger, they may in front of their boss-turned-relational-facilitator, which hopefully does not seem to be the case.

I usually have a longish heating-up part, where beyond the basic warmup people get to build and explain their own “avatar”, then their workplace, then their workplace with colleagues and themselves, and at this point you can introduce the specific problem they are experiencing.
Phenomenological feedback will go a long way, of course.

Cheers,
Walter

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