Conflict Style Root Assessment
Throughout our lives and numerous encounters, we’ve all developed unique coping strategies to handle conflict and approach negotiations. Some of these approaches can be effective, while others might be counterproductive or maladaptive. These strategies are more broadly described as conflict management styles and are grouped into five approaches: competition, accommodation, avoidance, collaboration and compromise.
Through an understanding of our reliance on these styles and by becoming more versatile in their usage, significant improvements can be made to your conflict management capabilities. Consequently, the quality of personal and professional relationships, decision-making, and negotiated agreements, are enhanced through proper style usage. Based on Mouton and Blake’s managerial grid developed in 1964, conflict style assessment tools include the Thomas-Kilmann Mode Instrument, which measures our reliance on each style, and the Kraybill Conflict Style Inventory, which assesses style usage during a calm state compared to heightened interactions.
The Conflict Style Root Assessment, developed at the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation, is the only conflict style assessment tool that evaluates both style usage and the motivations for using a particular style.
CIIAN’s Conflict Style Root Assessment evaluates both style usage and the motivations for using a particular style. It is commonly understood that there are both root causes as well as symptoms of a conflict. Effective negotiation and conflict resolution efforts identify and target the root of the conflict, whereas exclusively targeting the symptoms of a conflict can be problematic. Similarly, an individual’s use of each of the five conflict styles can be either based on motivations to target the root of conflict or to address the symptoms.
These differences in usage are referred to as the soothe and solve variations of conflict styles. Solve variations target the root of the conflict with a goal of understanding and addressing the origins of the conflict to resolve it effectively. Soothe variations target the symptoms; they aim to reduce the personal emotional discomfort created by the conflict while failing to address its root.
This is a subtle but critical distinction. Solve variations foster efficient and robust resolutions, personal growth and healthy relationships. On the other hand, reliance on soothe variations tends to result in less favourable outcomes for disputes, negotiations, decision-making and relationships.
To master negotiations and conflict management, it’s crucial to have a deep understanding of conflict styles, including the nuances of soothe and solve variations.
It’s not only important to identify which style is most commonly relied on but also which is used the least. Then, with an understanding of how to shift between styles, versatility can be achieved to ensure that the proper tool is used that best meet the needs of the situation. CIIAN’s Conflict Style Root Assessment is designed to quantify reliance on soothe vs solve variations of the five conflict styles so that you are better prepared to optimize the quality of your decisions and relationships.
Who is this for?
Coaches, Consultants & Mediators, needing a tool to help clients understand and improve their approach to managing conflict.
Professionals & Executives interested in optimizing their decision making, conflict management and leadership skills.
Trainers & Professors who want to introduce students to conflict styles and the importance of healthy conflict management approaches.
Anyone who wants to develop a greater understanding of how they handle conflict and insights on how to shift to an optimal conflict management style to improve the quality of their decisions and relationships.
The Conflict Style Root Assessment comes with an exercise and interpretation guide, offering insights and detailed information on the following topics:
The unique strengths and weaknesses of the five conflict styles and the soothe/solve variations. Learn about the potential pitfalls and the types of situations that they are most effective.
A quantitative ranking of your reliance on the conflict styles and their variants. Discover which styles you rely on the most as well as those that you use the least.
The consequences and considerations for over and underuse of each style, how to leverage off high-ranking solve variations to extinguish soothe strategies, and how to increase usage of low-ranking solve strategies to maximize your versatility.
A comparative scoring of solve versus soothe reliance to recognize potential dysfunctional approaches which can limit personal potential, damage relationships, and result in suboptimal decision-making and negotiated agreements..
Considerations and recommendations to increase versatility
in solve styles to ensure that the most effective strategy is used to best meet
the needs of the situation.
The Conflict Styles Root Assessment was originally presented in CIIAN’s Learning Module One; Self and Others. All purchases are eligible for 10% off our online certificate programs to gain further personal insights and practical tools to prevent and resolve destructive conflict.