So we've looked at two tools so far. ABC drew our attention to attitudes, behaviors, and context in a comparative way. And this helped us to see how perception is playing a role in the conflict. We were also able to identify some key needs for each party. The Onion took us on a journey from the outer layer of stated positions, through the middle realm of interests, and finally, to the hidden treasure of needs. By comparing these images for each party, we were able to note some competing positions, and interests, and then identify some shared needs. Now both of those tools keep a tight focus on the two parties to this brewing dispute. Our last tool zooms out to get a broader picture of life in this neighborhood. The conflict tree helps us to place this particular dispute at the bus stop, into a larger context. Using the imagery of a tree, we identify effects of the conflict, branches, the core problem, the tree trunk, and then root causes, the roots. This tool is most effective when a group of folks affected by the conflict work on it together. You can draw the tree on newsprint or a white board, and give everyone sticky notes on which to identify key issues in the conflict. They can use as many notes as they want. In fact, the more insights, the better, on this exercise. The next step is to invite people to place their sticky notes onto the tree, in the proper places. Now this becomes an excellent experience of collaborative study, prospective sharing, and community discernment. It also has an element of fun, as people figure out where to place their notes and watch the tree fill out. As a side note, I do find that having people get up and move around in a exercise like this is incredibly helpful. We need to do more than sit around tables and talk when we're trying to think carefully and creatively. An exercise like this one gets us up and moving and interacting with people in physical ways. So, let's try this out. Draw a tree and label it. Put the effects in the branches, the core problem on the trunk, and the root causes in the roots. Reread the story and create your own index cards or sticky notes or just little pieces of paper. You can certainly write these things directly on the tree, but we recommend the pieces of paper or note cards because they enable you to more easily move things around as you get clear about what key issues go where. This is a great tool for thinking broadly about an issue. It helps us to zoom out from the bus stop interactions to think more fully about this neighborhood as a living organism. This tool also helps us to get clear about what the true contributing causes of a conflict might be. And the exercise of zeroing in on a core problem helps to bring clarity to very muddy situations. There are some downsides. It's likely that you had more difficulty using this tool with this case study. That difficulty points us to one of the weaknesses of the conflict tree. Because this tool gives us such a big picture, it requires a lot of information, more than this little case study provided to you. So, again, I hope you felt free to fill in the gaps a little bit with your imagination, and/or your experience with neighborhood life. But still, you can get a sense for how much information is required to do the tree justice, and how helpful it is to have many people working together on this tool. The other downside of the lovely tree tool is time. This tool takes a lot of time to do well, and a lot of time to process with the group. It's typical of collaborative work, in that way. Collaboration simply takes time. But it also takes time to figure out what to do with the big picture that emerges here. So if the neighborhood in our case study would pick up this tool and really use it well, the Amadors and the Sanders would have to spend a lot more time together.
