Map a conflict one quadrant at a time
Lay out what each side feels, does, believes as a group, and is constrained by, before trying to resolve anything.
Warum es wirkt
In many conflicts each party is arguing from a different quadrant — one about fairness, one about facts, one about rules — so they talk past each other. McGuigan and Popp organize their analysis of a long-running fishing-rights conflict quadrant by quadrant for this reason. Mapping both sides in all four quadrants shows where the disagreement actually sits and where there may be shared ground.
So gehst du vor
- Name the conflict and the main parties, including yourself if you are one of them.
- For each party, write one line per quadrant: what they feel and fear (I), what they do (It), what their group values and assumes (We), and what rules, money or structures bind them (Its).
- Mark the quadrant where the parties differ most, and the one where they differ least.
- Start any conversation from the quadrant of least difference, and name the quadrant of most difference explicitly.
Evidenz
McGuigan and Popp’s Integral Conflict (SUNY Press, 2016) applies Wilber’s AQAL model to conflict, with a chapter for each quadrant built around the Fraser River fishing-rights conflict in British Columbia. It is a theoretical and case-study work, not a controlled test of the method. (anecdotal)
Evidence comes from one book’s case analysis. Mapping a conflict does not resolve it, and a serious dispute may need a trained mediator.
Quellen
Häufiger Fehler
Mapping the other side in detail and yourself in one generous line. Your own I and We entries are usually where the hidden part of the conflict lives.
Übe das mit IX Coach
Weitere Übungen für Using Wilber’s Four Quadrants on a Real Problem
- Run a stuck problem through all four quadrants
Write one problem down four times — as I, It, We and Its — before you decide what kind of problem it is.
- Find the quadrant you habitually skip
Look back at how you explained your last few problems and notice which quadrant almost never appears.
- Ask each quadrant its own truth question
Check a claim with the test that fits its quadrant: is it sincere, is it true, is it fair and shared, does it fit the system?
- Separate the culture problem from the systems problem
In a team or family problem, split what people share and assume (We) from the structures they work inside (Its).
- Design a habit change with a lever in every quadrant
Back one behavior change with an inner reason, a body-level routine, a supportive relationship and a changed environment.
- Map a sustainability or community issue the integral ecology way
Look at an environmental or community issue as experience, behavior, culture and systems — and as seen by different people.
- Predict the ripple of a change across the other quadrants
Before you make a change in one quadrant, predict what it will do in the other three, then check.
Verwandte Konzepte
- Spiral Dynamics, praktisch angewendet
Verstehen, wie sich Wertesysteme entwickeln, und wie man zwischen ihnen navigiert
- Kegans Subjekt-Objekt-Theorie, praktisch erklärt
Vom Beherrschtwerden durch die eigenen Annahmen zur Fähigkeit, sie zu untersuchen
- Terri O’Fallon’s STAGES Model, Made Practical
Twelve stages built from three repeating questions, and how to work with the one you are in
- Systemdenken
Struktur statt Ereignisse sehen – und die Hebelwirkung, die daraus entsteht
- Das COM-B-Modell und das Behaviour Change Wheel
Fähigkeit, Gelegenheit und Motivation diagnostizieren, bevor du eine Strategie wählst