Interest-based conflict resolution attempts to resolve conflicts by meeting interests “behind” parties’ positions or demands. A client requires weekly progress reports you think are unnecessary and burdensome. Does the client feel like they’re falling behind? Did they get in trouble for not knowing something? Do they micro-manage because that’s how they protect themselves? While demands or positions are often “take it or leave it,” there’s often more than one way to meet interests – and that opens up possibilities for crafting a mutually agreeable solution. This “win-win” potential makes interest-based conflict resolution more likely to meet parties’ needs with durable solutions, at lower costs, and with strengthened relationships.
Roger Fisher and Bill Ury differentiated interests from positions, and interest-based negotiation from positional bargainnng, in Getting To Yes. Chris Moore identified substantive, procedural, and psychological interest in The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict. And Ury, Brett, and Goldberg developed the interests/rights/power framework as a system design tool, not just a negotiation framework, in Getting Disputes Resolved: Designing Systems to Cut the Costs of Conflict.
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