ConfrontationForce
Difficult conversations, made good
Confrontation as a competence. For me, confrontation is not a personal problem. It is a professional discipline - a competence that releases energy, strengthens cooperation and develops the organization. It should be in job advertisements. We start with you. Your courage, your language and a simple structure that you can share in the team, so that ConfrontationForce becomes a creative and liberating tool.
Face to face - and on together, Birgitte Nordvig points out that "confrontare" in medieval Latin means "to meet face to face". I work with it figuratively. We meet face to face, and the goal is that on the other side of the conversation we can lean into each other with new understanding and stronger collaboration.
How we prepare for your next conversation.
We translate discomfort into direction through preparation, practice and clear steps:
- Emotional responses: Get to know your own reaction - and regulate it.
- Values & intention: What do you stand for - and for?
- Speech acts & language:
- Simple sentences that make the complex understandable.
Positions in the conversation: Listening position, helicopter view, production domain and your inner "regulatory system"Courage and patienceCreating a culture that can confront with an eye for development and community requires courage - and patience. It takes time to change habits. Curiosity about yourself and others, the willingness not to guess between the lines, and a real interest in solving what is bothering you are the keys. The answer is to practice, gain method and knowledge – and stick with it.
Since I was young, conflict and confrontation have both frightened and attracted me. In my childhood home, I learned – like so many others – guilt, shame and blame. Often over things I had no idea were "wrong". It set in as an unfortunate and not constructive pattern. When something became difficult or when "negative moods hung in the air" and the tones in the voices became high and threatening - then I PANICKED. I almost think my brain froze - wanted to flee and attack at the same time. My pulse rose and I remember it with great discomfort and always had an overwhelming experience of chaos. When I, as a young person, heard about handling conflicts, the psychology and philosophies surrounding the subject, I felt drawn and experienced that the encounter with method gave me the courage to begin the work of seeing it in a developmental and creative perspective.
As an actor, the theater was my first training ground. In drama, there is always conflict – but on stage everything was safe and organized. The big emotions could find space without anyone getting really hurt. Later, in my early forties, I took a module in conflict management. That changed everything. I gained language for the psychological in me, the philosophical and the courage to accept the discomfort – and a method for facing confrontations without being engulfed and overwhelmed by "fight-flight-freeze". Today I see confrontation as development. With preparation, values, courage and method, difficult conversations can free both people and organizations. It has become my great passion to work on confrontation and conflict management.
With ConfrontationForce we make difficult conversations clear, orderly and effective: Courage, language and action.
Socrates' approach to dialogue and confrontation focuses on asking questions to challenge assumptions and promote understanding. We will also work on that. We explore deeper reflection and clarity in the difficult conversations. This creates space to explore different points of view and find common ground. Through the lens and philosophy of constructivism, which emphasizes that knowledge is created through social interactions and collaboration, we can work together in confrontations to build new understandings and solutions.
Book an introductory meeting at olsenstudio.dk – or write to hej@olsenstudio.dk