Removing the Emotional Hooks of Conflict

Attorney Stewart Levine loved the legal profession because of the ideals it represented. But when he realized the practice of law rarely allowed him to consider human values along with property values, he took down his shingle and became an expert in resolving conflicts in a way that preserves relationships as well as legal rights. He points out that the costs of remaining in conflict are high. They consist of direct money out-of-pocket, loss of opportunity and continuity, not to mention the emotional costs. He has developed a 7-step resolution model and often refers to those who implement it as resolutionaries.

He explains, “Conflict is never about what’s being argued about on the surface . . . It’s always about some emotional hook between two people . . . The container I create in the context of conflict is a safe space, in which we will talk about the situation without judgment, without the need to be right or wrong, but only the need to move through it on our way to some vision of what we want the future to be.” (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)