Season 2 episode 12 of the Resist + Renew podcast, where we talk about how to deal with conflict in the moment where it spikes up, using a frame called an "OODA loop".

'Conflict doesn't have to be fighting or loud. It can be a stickiness, or a tenseness that our body is picking up on.'

Show notes, links

Why this is a useful frame: intervening in conflict situations can feel difficult; it is easier when you do these steps first!.

In the "Observe" step, a few things to look for:

volume changes

an issue "cycling" back again and again

issues being raised but not addressed

participation changes (did some people leave the space and not come back)

feeling tense in your body

In the "Orient" step, a few questions to reflect on:

Who is involved, and who isn't?

Who is visibly involved, who could be not visibly involved?

What roles are people taking (formal and informal)?

Why do you think it's happening now? (e.g. specific timings

What's your position in this?

How could this pan out? Do you think it will escalate, or fizzle out?

In the "Decide" step, a few areas to consider:

WHEN to intervene: never; later but not now; now; a mix

WHO should intervene: you? You + someone else? Other people, not you?

WHAT you could do: have a side chat with people you think are "in conflict"; checking in on what a person who has been harmed wants; activating a pre-existing conflict process; name that conflict is happening, and explicitly park it til later; take a pause, to make a plan; name + ask people what's happening; find out what (some / all) people need; name and frame.

In the "Act" step... good luck! More on potential interventions next week...

Other resources on OODA loops as a model:

A podcast that talks about OODA loops in more depth than we do...

...or a blog post breaking down the OODA loop steps, if you prefer written things.

And finally, some perennial resources:

our sister facilitation collective Navigate have a conflict facilitation booklet (from back when they were called Seeds For Change Oxford).

See our "What is facilitation?" podcast episode page for more general facilitation resources.

We now have a Patreon! Please help keep the podcast going, at patreon.com/resistrenew. If not, there's always the classic ways to support: like, share, and subscribe!

Transcript

ALI

This is Resist Renew,

KATHERINE

the UK based podcast about social movements,

SAMI

what we're fighting for, why and how it all happens.

ALI

The hosts of the show are

KATHERINE

Me, Kat.

SAMI

Me, Sami,

ALI

and me, Ali.

SAMI

I'm recording this now, baby!

ALI

Shit, it's a podcast!

KATHERINE

Welcome to this episode of the toolbox. Today we're going to be exploring what to do in the moment when conflict sparks. And we're going to explore this using a thing called an OODA. Loop. And the OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. Over to you, Sami, to tell us what this is.

SAMI

Yes, I will try. [Luahgs] So: full disclosure, this is an idea that comes from like military with like a military background. So I'm not going to pretend I've ever like been trained at this at military school or whatever.

But yeah, so the this like this OODA Loop, like to imagine it, as like a circle with Observe, Orient Describe Act as like a set of steps that you'll go through when deciding to do something in some kind of like conflictual situation or other type of situation. And so and I think just breaking out those distinct steps is probably quite helpful.

Like, often when there is a conflict, you will have a step of, like, trying to work out what's going on, which is like maybe an observation step; which maybe has a question around it, like how do you know that there is a conflict happening? Like, what is the signal that tells you that?

There's something about orienting, which is like, kind of digesting what you're observing. And like, thinking about how to structure that information. So having a bit of think about like, what is the information that you want to try and, like, pay attention to and like, all those kinds of questions.

So: Decide is the next one which is… So like, this one's probably the one the least relevant to this, because deciding and acting probably for this kind of equivalent. And then so like, then the question is like, so what, How are you going to act? Now? How exactly is that going to take shape? So like, when are you going to act? How are you going to act? What you're going to say? And questions like that.

So what we're going to do in this episode is probably less, because this is more of like, this is a frame like a way of thinking we're not suggesting you should use this as a tool in your group. But it's more: this is a useful frame, maybe, to help think of what some questions, what some areas that will generate some questions around are some things that you can reflect on, when there is a conflict happening, that you're participating in, witnessing, etc.

So, first question is maybe is so like, how would you know that there is a conflict happening? Who wants to take that one?

ALI

So, I guess there's a few different signals that might tell us that there's conflict happening. One that might be quite obvious, even though this isn't just what conflict is, is like, people might get loud and start shouting a each other, or there might be some kind of physical signals of people making angry faces, sad faces. So that might be one thing.

But it could be also completely the opposite. And people go really silent, go quiet, might leave, might never come back to your group or meeting. So yeah: both ends of the spectrum there could be a signal.

KATHERINE

I think there's also something around a signal to pay attention to if the same concern keeps arising again, and again, like a phrase for this is ‘cycling’, like when something is cycling back around, is a sense that maybe there's an issue that's not been dealt with yet, because it keeps returning to your group. And therefore, maybe a decision needs to be made about what's gonna happen with that issue that keeps returning.

ALI

And that, is that one where it might be on the level of like values that haven't been like, fully talked through, potentially, like the same issue keeps coming up and getting stuck and not being able to, like move past it? It might be… It's not that we can't decide what's the best action. It's like, do we think this is in line with our values? Are there like fundamentally like diverging paths there?

Yeah, absolutely. And I guess another one related to that is like, people name that they're not happy about something, but then nothing happens as a result of that. Which is a common one, especially in groups where there's not very much time to process things if there's a long action list.

ALI

And I guess another signal could be more of like a - internal sense. It could be your own emotions, it could be the way your body feels, if you just suddenly feel tense. That also is a signal and it's worth paying attention to that as well. Even if, you know, like mainstream thinking around like, intuition and bodies is like not - it tells you to devalue that. But it is like a it is a signal as well.

So those are a few different signals that there might be conflict going on. Does someone want to tell us about what would come next after that, in this OODA Loop?

SAMI

I can give it a go. Because it's, because, so, that's maybe some things that you're like…. Those are some ways that you'll notice that conflict is happening, and maybe you'll be so like, it's always good to then be like observing the group and just like trying to absorb what's going on, and maybe some questions that will help you like kind of, I guess, structure that information, which is what the Orient is in the OODA. Which I think is the hardest one to remember what it means is like, how do you structure the information?

So there are some a few questions that you could think of around some like I guess frames or lenses you could use to analyse what's happening. So for example, like who is involved in this, like spark, and who isn't? And thinking about what it means to be involved. Like, who's visibly involved? Does it seem like there are people that are like not visibly involved in that they're maybe not in this spark that's happening, but maybe you think they're, they have some kind of involvement, maybe outside of this discussion, space, whatever.

Thinking about, like, what the different kind of like roles people occupying are, maybe in like a formal sense in a group. You know, like, if they're the treasurer, and it's an argument about money or whatever, like, maybe the roles will be relevant. And but also, like, in a more general sense, like, what kind of like positions they're taking, like rank and power and questions like that in the space.

And there's maybe some, like more meta, there's sort of like quite practical ones, of like, things you may be noticing, but there's probably also some, like meta conversations around that, which is around like, like, having a think about like, Why do you think this information’s coming out now? Like, is, do you have a space to process conflict? And that didn't go to that one? In which case why? Or do you feel like this is erupting now, because people don't have another place to mention it? Things like that. So there are some thoughts. Any other ones that are relevant under that?

ALI

You might want to think about you as a person in this like, dynamic as well. Like, what's your particular role and, and rank in relation to the other people involved? And maybe your relationships with the other people? And you might want to think about, like, what might what's like potential things might happen in this situation? Like, is it something where the conflict could escalate? Or is it kind of just like, a low level thing?